Sustainability in Action: Trane’s Charmes, France facility transitions away from fossil fuels with innovative heat pump technology

Taking action now

In December I traveled to Charmes, France, to attend a celebratory ribbon cutting event, and the official installation of the new Thermal Management System at our manufacturing facility. The plant is the first Trane manufacturing site in Europe to install this technology, and one of several Trane Technologies office locations, eliminating the need for fossil fuel use to heat the site’s manufacturing facility and offices.

The Charmes plant employs 450 people who innovate, manufacture and test large chillers, heat pumps and rooftop units, which help hospitals, schools, commercial buildings and factories achieve higher efficiency in heating and cooling. The facility sits on more than 100,000 square meters, including factory and lab spaces, which were previously heated by two natural gas-fired boilers with total heating capacity of 2.4MW.

The future is electric

Most buildings in Europe use two separate systems: a chiller for cooling, and a fossil-fuel powered boiler for heating, with chimneys that release exhaust and other harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

The new electrified Thermal Management System provides all-electric heating to the entire site, eliminating the need for fossil fuels and delivering simultaneous heating and cooling when required. The new system leveraging high-efficiency heat pump technology is based on three Trane Sintesis™ Advantage CXAF air-to-water reversible heat pumps and two Trane CITY RTSF water-to-water heat pumps.

• Trane Sintesis™ Advantage CXAF 190 High Efficiency offers 612kW of net cooling capacity and 567kW of net heating capacity and feature the low GWP R-454B refrigerant, offered by Trane across our entire portfolio of scroll compressor chillers, heat pumps, multi-pipe units and rooftops.
• Trane CITY RTSF 110 High Efficiency water-to-water heat pumps offer 386kW of cooling capacity and 465kW of heating capacity and are designed with R-1234ze, a near zero GWP refrigerant. The Trane CITY units use renewable energy, geothermal sourced water, and wastewater to deliver heating capacity up to 80°C. This solution is ideal for small commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and industrial processes because it matches with (existing) conventional heating system requirements and it delivers a safe, less than 1 GWP cooling and heating solution.

With the new Thermal Management System, the Charmes site is expected to reduce 1,800 metric tons of carbon annually, helping advance our company’s 2030 Sustainability Commitments, including achieving carbon neutral operations across our global footprint.

Paving the way for others

This installation is an example of the real-world, sustainability-in-action needed to bend the curve on climate change. When it comes to sustainability and decarbonization of our cities, there is a lot of focus on electrifying cars. Many people don’t know the huge impact we can have by bringing that same electrification focus to buildings. The great news is, we don’t have to wait for innovation. The technologies needed to decarbonize commercial buildings already exist today, in applications like the one right here in Charmes.

Now, with our innovative, all-electric thermal management system, we can eliminate the need for fossil fuel boilers. And, through closed loop heat recovery processes, we can recover heat that would otherwise be wasted - simultaneously heating and cooling a space, four times more efficiently.

In addition, the site achieved zero waste to landfill in 2012, is fully equipped with LED lighting, and has reduced its water consumption by 63% since 2019.

In today’s environment, that kind of improved efficiency is more important than ever. But we cannot do it alone – and we must do it together, faster. We need fellow leaders from around the world, who share our vision for a more sustainable world, to help make this change happen.

I’m proud of the hard work of our dedicated employees who are boldly challenging what’s possible for a sustainable world. Their tireless efforts and bold thinking are inspiring the change needed to transform our industry now and into the future.