Successful Microgrid Demonstration Uses Calmac’s IceBank Energy Storage
Ice-based energy storage helps optimize on-site renewable energy resources
FAIR LAWN, N.J. — Calmac® announced that its ice-based energy storage technology was implemented into the microgrid project at the Naval Post Graduate School’s Integrated Multi-Physics Renewable Energy Laboratory (IMPREL) in Monterey, California. The IMPREL microgrid project uses various forms of energy storage to store energy in the form it will be needed in, and a unique multi-physics approach to optimize the use of onsite sources of renewable energy. Calmac’s ice-based energy storage provided the microgrid with a technology for flexible use of solar and wind energy to store cooling.
“Ice-based energy storage is the low-hanging fruit of the industry,” said Mark MacCracken, CEO of Calmac. “The biggest advantage that fossil fuels have over renewable energy resources is that a barrel of oil or lump of coal is a form of stored energy that can be released at any time. Sun and wind are forms of pure energy that, without being paired with energy storage, are either used or wasted. Luckily, energy storage can easily be integrated into our buildings and power grid.”