Storing photo voltaic power between sundown and daybreak Is An monumental problem. Israeli startup Nostromo Energy decided To fulfill that problem By way of the use of an unlikely substance: water.
Put in on the roof, basement or partitions Of financial and industrial constructings, Nostromo’s modular IceBrick shops power in ice capsules and directs it to enterprise space cooling, which accounts for As a lot as 45 % Of worldwide worldwide power demand all through peak hours.
Social activist Yaron Ben Nun, founder and CTO of Nostromo Energy, tells ISRAEL21c that lithium-ion batteries are the prevailing know-how for storing photo voltaic power and assuring grid stability, “as a Outcome of they work.”
“However lithium ion Can’t be An enall through reply for the grid as a Outcome of we’ll have mountains of lithium waste That might not straightforward to mitigate. We ought to always have clear, sustainable know-how.”
Nostromo’s IceBrick. Credit rating: Nostromo
Ben Nun, a self-described “air-conditioning addict,” is a educated electrician with expertise in power administration and conservation.
His evaluation revealed that ice is a protected, efficient supplies To primarytain power. And It is sustainable, Since the identical water Might be frozen and melted As quickly as extra and again.
“The grid loses a quantity of megawatts at sundown Daily, and that calls for large portions of storage. Simply by freezing water, We will Look after 45% of the load on the grid,” says Ben Nun.
“I’m not The primary To Take into think aboutation This idea, but you don’t see these methods By way ofout the place Because of poor engineering and efficiency, too huge a footprint and an unattractive look,” he provides.
Nostromo’s Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Yaron Ben Nun. Photograph by Mark Nomder
In 2016, Ben Nun acquired fundings from household and pals And commenced enchancment of A mannequin new power storage cell for the enterprise market That would overcome these drawagains. “We designed a cell with extreme properties of effectivity, depth of discharge, and stability,” he says.
A delegated chiller costs the IceBrick array by circulating antifreeze through it at minus 3 levels Celsius. The chiller makes use of Low price or surplus Electricity from the grid at off-peak hours or from renewable assets, Ben Nun explains.
Take a digital tour of the system right here.
“We’re in A very unusual And opulent time, and we think about our know-how is An important system for choice-makers to mitigate The huge problems coming in the direction of us,” says Ben Nun.
Pilot tasks in US and Israel
Nostromo has R&D tasks with Royal Dutch Shell and the Israel Electrical Company, and partnerships with a quantity of American engineering corporations.
In February, Mayo A. Shattuck III, chairman Of yank power huge Exelon, introduced a $500,000 private funding …….
Source: https://www.israel21c.org/using-ice-to-store-solar-energy-for-the-a-c/