Companiew
Companies storing cold:
- Calmac (now part of HVAC giant Trane) has been commercially active for decades freezing tanks of liquid to help cool large commercial buildings.
- Thule Energy Storage has some 1,500 “Ice Bear” units freezing ice to cool down houses and small businesses. (It picked up the IP from startup Ice Energy, which went bankrupt in 2020.)
- Viking Cold Solutions does the same for cold-storage warehouses, making them more energy efficient while improving the quality of frozen foods.
- Five-year-old startup Nostromo Energy has operated its IceBrick product for commercial buildings in Israel for more than two years; now it’s in the running for a $189 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to install it at 120 buildings in Southern California and beyond. (source)
Challenges
According to Canary Media:
Building owners just haven’t felt compelled to shift their heating and cooling loads, even if they theoretically could save some money on their energy bills. Analyses of the thermal-storage industry from a few years ago concluded it was a good idea in search of a receptive audience.