Hardee Fresh Leverages Mechanical CHP with Tecogen - A unique approach to keep their plants cool

Hardee Fresh is a USDA certified organic vertical farm, growing organic lettuce, herbs, and power greens in a self-reliant, sustainable ecosystem. Located in Wauchula, FL, Hardee Fresh can annually harvest 500 acres worth of produce within just one acre of land. In 2018, Hardee Fresh began operation and has strived to grow sustainably by taking numerous steps to preserve and protect the environment.

In their Florida facility, Hardee Fresh operates three 150-ton TECOCHILL? “STx Series” Natural Gas Engine-Driven Chillers, a form of combined heat and power (CHP), which provides 450 tons of cooling. Most importantly, this satisfied their priority to pursue a sustainable vertical farm by cutting their Scope 2 emissions significantly when producing the cooling power on site and recovering the waste heat from the CHP system.

Cost Saving Ability

Customers like Hardee Fresh find a 40-60% operational cost reduction utilizing Tecogen’s efficient Tecochill Chillers. Powered by natural gas instead of electricity, Tecogen’s units can provide cooling at a significantly lower cost than conventional electric chillers. Tecochill chillers reduce the facilities electricity need to just 1-2 kW per unit compared to 190-300 kW necessary to power an electric chiller of equivalent size. Hardee Fresh can realize additional savings when using the engine waste heat, a free byproduct. In indoor cultivation, waste heat is used for dehumidification, space heating and domestic hot water. Unlike the central power plant, which provides electricity to electric chillers at a relatively low efficiency (40-45%), using a variety of energy sources, a CHP system can achieve efficiencies of over 80% cutting the associated GHG emissions by approximately 50%.

This efficient simultaneous use of the engines’ shaft power and captured waste heat is considered a form of “mechanical Combined Heat & Power (CHP)” by utilities and government agencies. As a result, Tecochill chillers can qualify for significant state, federal, and utility incentives. These incentives can reduce a facility’s upfront capital investment significantly and make the payback period for facility owners with Tecochill chillers, such as Hardee Fresh, even better. Currently there is a 40% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) offered by the federal government’s recently passed of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) granted to all Tecogen products as well as a substantial portion of the installation cost to implement them.

Sustainability

At Hardee Fresh, we estimate that the three TECOCHILL? STx-150 are saving approximately 600 tons of CO2 emissions annually, compared to an electric chiller-based plant. “As society moves towards a decarbonized future, Tecochill and CHP systems have a role to play. Efficient natural gas-fired systems reduce overall carbon emissions by displacing the utility’s marginal fuel source at the power plant,” according to Steve Lafaille, Tecogen’s VP of Business Development. “When an environmentally conscious customer installs a Tecochill chiller or another type of Tecogen CHP system, and they start making some of their own mechanical or electrical power while using the recovered heat onsite, they’re allowing the utility to ramp down natural gas usage at the local power plant. The cleanest utility resources, like solar, wind, and arguably nuclear, are must-take resources. But the utility’s next piece, which is the part being offset here, is its natural gas plant ramping up and down. When a Tecochill chiller operates, a corresponding amount of electricity is not needed. We’re offsetting the utility’s natural gas plant without its transmission losses and inefficiency.”

Future Facilities

Now with a proven functional and sustainable vertical farm design, Hardee Fresh has plans to expand into a new 200,000 sq ft facility in Americus, GA, the new venture coined, “Americus Fresh”. Construction is expected to finish by late 2024 and will have created a hybrid chiller plant using three 400-ton TECOCHILL? Engine-Driven Chillers along with electric chillers. Hybrid chiller plants are commonly used for energy cost arbitrage and energy diversity and can be useful with large cooling loads. While many others have struggled with high energy costs related to cultivating indoors, Hardee Fresh has got it figured out, their Tecochill chillers being just one of the many important pieces of the puzzle to producing high quality crops both economically and sustainably.