Even in winter most of Portugal enjoys five to six hours of sunshine each day, so it is no surprise that Sunpipes are proving so popular. By taking advantage of natural daylight, leading retailers Decathlon, Hipermercados E Leclerc and Intermarche are benefitting from cost and environmental savings; while the thousands of customers that shop with them every week enjoy what Sainsbury’s Commercial Director Neil Sachdev described as ‘amazing natural light’.
The three supermarket chains have installed a total of 575 Sunpipes. The 530mm Diamond Dome models are similar to those installed by the leading UK retailers, including Asda, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury and Tesco. Decathlon, for example, has installed 209 Sunpipes at its store in Cascais, 120 in Santarem, 115 in Castelo Branco and 98 in Torres Vedras. And Intermache has installed eight in its Central Warehouse in Alcanena.
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While UK supermarkets have shown that Sunpipes can be up to 50% more energy efficient and emit up to 50% less CO2 compared to stores built just a few years ago, Portuguese supermarkets can expect to save even more by eliminating the unnecessary use of electric lighting during their longer daylight hours. They will also be hoping to take advantage of the significantly improved retail sales that natural lighting is said to generate, according to university reports.
Commenting for Monodraught, managing director Tony Cull says the orders, which were won by the company’s Portuguese distributor Exuvent, are the result of a concerted effort to expand sales of Sunpipes throughout the Iberian Peninsula, where longer daylight hours offer enormous potential for energy and environmental savings.
