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How Solar Power and Ice Energy Can Play Together
Once you dispose of the centralized model thermal power that has defined the parameters of our electrical system, you start rethinking how it is best to use energy in some very fundamental ways. This is one example of how end user alternatives are going to be an important part of making the transition away from fossil fuels a comfortable move.
How Solar Power and Ice Energy Can Play Together
Can thermal energy storage help shift solar power to cover evening peak loads?
JEFF ST. JOHN: AUGUST 19, 2013
Three years ago, Greentech Media covered the launch of an experiment in California to see if ice-making air conditioners could help solve a tricky problem for solar power.
The participants, solar PV giant SunPower and thermal energy storage startup Ice Energy, wanted to see how well sun and ice could work together to help shift solar PV‘s peak power production, which takes place in the mid-afternoon, to play a role in providing power during the “evening peaks” that come after 5 p.m. or so. That’s when people start getting off work, heading home and turning on their lights, TVs, electric appliances and, on hot summer evenings, their air conditioners.
Another thing that people do after work, of course, is go shopping. Malls, department stores and other retail centers also have an evening peak to deal with, as they start turning on their lights and cranking up their air conditioners to keep buildings cool. Heat, unlike sunlight, keeps gathering throughout the day, and tends to peak in the late afternoon. That means that those rooftop AC units are cranking their hardest right when solar power is already fast on its way to dropping off to its evening zero point.
SunPower, armed with a $1.475 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission, set out in 2010 to team up with Ice Energy, along with battery company ZBB Energy (ZBB), the DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories and other parties, to test the capabilities of solar energy shifting across a variety of settings in California.
But while batteries can store solar-generated electricity for use at later times, Ice Energy’s rooftop units use that solar output to make ice, then use that ice later in the day to drastically reduce the amount of electricity those AC units need -- a procedure that’s known as "thermal energy storage." While thermal energy storage has been a part of district energy systems for decades, scaling it down to rooftop size is a newer development.
Earlier this month...
Can thermal energy storage help shift solar power to cover evening peak loads?
JEFF ST. JOHN: AUGUST 19, 2013
Three years ago, Greentech Media covered the launch of an experiment in California to see if ice-making air conditioners could help solve a tricky problem for solar power.
The participants, solar PV giant SunPower and thermal energy storage startup Ice Energy, wanted to see how well sun and ice could work together to help shift solar PV‘s peak power production, which takes place in the mid-afternoon, to play a role in providing power during the “evening peaks” that come after 5 p.m. or so. That’s when people start getting off work, heading home and turning on their lights, TVs, electric appliances and, on hot summer evenings, their air conditioners.
Another thing that people do after work, of course, is go shopping. Malls, department stores and other retail centers also have an evening peak to deal with, as they start turning on their lights and cranking up their air conditioners to keep buildings cool. Heat, unlike sunlight, keeps gathering throughout the day, and tends to peak in the late afternoon. That means that those rooftop AC units are cranking their hardest right when solar power is already fast on its way to dropping off to its evening zero point.
SunPower, armed with a $1.475 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission, set out in 2010 to team up with Ice Energy, along with battery company ZBB Energy (ZBB), the DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories and other parties, to test the capabilities of solar energy shifting across a variety of settings in California.
But while batteries can store solar-generated electricity for use at later times, Ice Energy’s rooftop units use that solar output to make ice, then use that ice later in the day to drastically reduce the amount of electricity those AC units need -- a procedure that’s known as "thermal energy storage." While thermal energy storage has been a part of district energy systems for decades, scaling it down to rooftop size is a newer development.
Earlier this month...
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-sun-power-and-ice-energy-can-play-together?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=Headline&utm_campaign=GTMDaily