Enter Ice Bear

The Ice Bear distributed energy storage system enables a powerful change in how — and, more importantly, when — energy is consumed for air conditioning. The system is designed to absorb off-peak load and dispatch it on-peak, while consuming an equal or lesser amount of energy on each building.

The Ice Bear unit is incorporated into a building’s standard AC system and is designed to absorb off-peak load and dispatch it on-peak, while consuming an equal or lesser amount of energy on each building, creating the industry’s first effectively lossless storage solution.

Using thermally efficient, off-peak power to produce and store energy for use during peak hours the following day, the Ice Bear system reduces peak energy required by conventional AC systems. AC energy demand – typically 40-50% of a building’s electricity use during peak hours – can be reduced by as much as 95%.

Decoupling daytime air conditioning use from peak energy demand, each Ice Bear distributed energy storage unit reduces an average of 7.2 kW of source equivalent peak demand for a minimum of 6 hours daily, shifting 32 kW-hours of on-peak energy to off-peak hours.

The breakthrough technology features of the Ice Bear unit includes the industry’s first effectively lossless storage with unlimited deep discharging, unlimited storage cycles, very low maintenance, no chemicals or heavy metals, and a 25-year asset life.

How It Works

The Ice Bear energy storage system works with a standard commercial air conditioning system. Requiring no modification to existing ductwork, each Ice Bear unit can be applied to 85% of air conditioners ranging from a 3-5 ton system to a 20-ton system, providing 30 ton hours of cooling.

The Ice Bear energy storage unit operates in two basic modes, Ice Cooling and Ice Charging, to store cooling energy at night, and to deliver that energy the following day.

During Ice Charge mode, a self-contained charging system freezes 450 gallons of water in the Ice Bear’s insulated tank by pumping refrigerant through a configuration of copper coils within it. The water that surrounds these coils freezes and turns to ice. The condensing unit then turns off, and the ice is stored until its cooling energy is needed.

As daytime temperatures rise, the power consumption of air conditioning rises along with it, pushing the grid to peak demand levels. During this peak window, typically from noon to 6 pm, the Ice Bear unit replaces the energy intensive compressor of the air conditioner.

The Ice Bear unit, fully charged from the night before, switches to Ice Cooling mode. The Ice Bear uses the ice, rather than the AC unit’s compressor, to cool the hot refrigerant, slowing melting the ice as it travels through a series of copper coils. A small, highly efficient pump pushes ice-cold refrigerant through a modified Ice Energy LiquidDX® evaporator coil installed in the conventional air conditioning unit.

The Ice Cooling cycle lasts for at least 6 hours. Once the ice has fully melted, the Ice Bear transfers the job of cooling back to the building’s AC unit, to provide cooling, as needed, until the next day. During the cool of the night, the Ice Charge mode is activated and the entire cycle begins again.

The company is headquartered in Windsor, Colorado, with offices in Lake Forest and Sacramento, California. For more information, visit www.ice-energy.com. See their Product Video for a demonstration of it.

Project converts dairy wastes to energy, other products


As part of a project to create alternative sources of energy, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are cultivating green algae that holds promise as a new supply of biofuel.

“People have been growing algae for centuries for food supplements for use by man and animals,” said Cecelia Williams, project lead. “It now has the potential to supply our energy needs too.”

Beginning in the 1950s, the Department of Energy recognized algae as a potential feedstock for energy and biofuels and funded the Aquatic Species Program between 1978 and 1996 with $25 million to investigate the production of biofuel from microalgae. DOE terminated the program in the mid-1990s due to low petroleum prices and other priorities. It has only been in the last few years that DOE has once again become interested in algae as a potential source of fuel.

Recently Williams and other Sandia researchers have grown green algae in a 12-by-30-foot greenhouse using a simulated dairy effluent, the nutrient-rich liquid remaining after bacterial digestion of dairy manure. The solids from the digestion of dairy manure can potentially be used to develop fertilizer and feed and the liquid serves as a nutrient source for algae. The algae are typically cultured for several days, followed by harvesting and dewatering, after which the algal oil is extracted. The algae produce lipids, the most useful being neutral oil made up largely of triacyglycerides (TAG) that can be converted to biofuels.

Williams said that growing algae for biofuels eliminates many problems associated with traditional biofuels.

“The current generation of biofuels [starch- and sugar-based ethanol and oil crop-based biodiesel] rely on the use of commodity crops and therefore compete for use of food crops, primarily corn,” she said. “Also, they are very farm-intensive and use a lot of good farming land, fuel and fertilizer inputs and fresh water.”

Algae ponds, on the other hand, can be put on marginal land and grown with non-fresh brackish water produced from energy mineral extraction (petroleum, natural gas, coal-bed methane), or nutrient-loaded wastewater from municipal and agricultural sources. The Southwest has the potential for being a leader in manufacturing this new type of biofuel because “it has lots of barren land that can’t be used for anything else, lots of sunlight and a lot of marginal water,” Sandia researcher Brian Dwyer said.

Sandia scientist Ron Pate noted that Sandia is bringing into play its scientific and engineering expertise to grow and process specific types of algae for biofuels and other useful coproducts. Sandia’s work in this area ties into broader biofuels efforts supported by DOE’s Office of Biomass Program (OBP) that focus on addressing challenges to commercially viable algal biofuels production. This includes participation in the development of the National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap Report, which is still in preparation and partnering with others on proposals to establish consortia for algal biofuels and for advanced fungible biofuels with potential funding from OBP. The Algal Biofuels Consortium specifically proposes a broad-based collaboration with Sandia and other national labs, industry and university partners that would pursue research and development of algal biofuels as an affordable, scaleable and sustainable solution that can contribute significantly to meeting the nation’s transportation fuel needs.

Williams anticipates that the Sandia research will have the potential to provide new jobs and economic development to New Mexico, the seventh largest dairy-producing state in the nation. The state’s dairy industry employs more than 5,000 people and has an annual impact of nearly $2.7 billion.

The 340,000 dairy cows in New Mexico produce large quantities of manure and nutrient-rich effluent water that represent a significant waste management problem and regulatory expense to the state’s dairy industry. These and other agri-industrial waste streams represent a valuable and underused feedstock for recycling of energy, biofuels, reusable water and other coproducts. The DOE Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap currently in draft suggests the use of non-fresh water sources, including agricultural effluent, for algal biomass production. Besides providing a source of non-fresh water and the recycling of needed nutrients, the use of these waste streams in an integrated biorefinery will help to alleviate disposal regulatory requirements on dairies and other confined animal feeding operations in New Mexico and the broader United States.

Sandia’s greenhouse algae project was conceived by Pate and Kyle Hoodenpyle (Ag2Energy) and has been funded by the New Mexico Small Business Association (SBA) and the New Mexico Technology Research Collaborative. The SBA funds Sandia to work with the private-sector partners Ag2Energy and the Pecos Valley Dairy Producers, one of the largest collections of dairy producers in New Mexico. TRC funding lasted one year and the SBA funding is in its final year of a three-year funding cycle.

Future money to research dewatering algae and monitoring the health of algae ponds will come from Sandia’s internal Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program and possibly new direct-funded projects from DOE. This research will also allow the greenhouse algae ponds to support other aspects of Sandia’s algae biofuel research portfolio by using the data and information generated from these experiments to evaluate or verify both systems and process models. These models are essential for understanding the economics and risk associated with both the R&D and the scale-up that will be required to make algae an economically viable fuel source for the nation. The ultimate goal is to make algae-derived biofuels competitive with petroleum-based fuels.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, an autonomous Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, an autonomous Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Source: Sandia

Utilities around the world are under pressure. Growing populations are using increasing amounts of power, which is putting a strain on existing supplies. In many countries (including the US), the increase in demand is growing faster than the rate at which utilities are able to increase their transmission capacity. And the cost of providing power is also increasing due to higher fuel costs and increases in the cost of construction and capital expenses.

To make things even more challenging, governments around the world are introducing new regulations and guidelines to reduce emissions. And many countries have deregulated the energy sector in recent years, which has led to greater competition along with consumer demand for more control over power usage and costs.

This has forced utilities to rethink tradition practices and look for a smarter way to provide supply, billing and services to their customers.

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About Smart Energy

AMR, AMI and HANs

Automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) are revolutionizing the industry. AMR provides more efficient and timely metering information, while AMI uses this information to put more control into the hands of both utilities and consumers by giving them more detailed information about consumption. This allows utilities to better regulate supply and to refine their pricing structure based on demand cycles. It also gives consumers immediate feedback about their usage, allowing them to reduce consumption by turning off things they don’t need and switching others over to non-peak demand times when prices are lower.

Demand Response

Demand response (DR) refers to the reduction of consumer energy usage at times of peak usage to help address system reliability, reflect market conditions and pricing, and support infrastructure optimization or deferral. Demand response programs can include dynamic pricing/tariffs, price-responsive demand bidding, contractually obligated and voluntary curtailment, and direct load control/cycling.

In a DR system, AMI networks are extended through smart meters or separate gateways to also include home area networks (HANs), which connect communicating devices and systems such as lighting, thermostats, load switches, and in-home displays. Utilities who institute time-of-use pricing schemes can use the HAN to communicate the current price of energy to the consumer. Smart appliances connected to the HAN can be controlled automatically or manually (including remotely) to react to pricing events and operate during low-cost energy periods.

Utilities can also be given access to HANs in certain situations, for example, during emergencies they can adjust thermostats and other high-usage household applications to free up supply and make sure it can be delivered where it is most needed.

Applications

• Utilities are able to track peak usage times (and days), which provides them with the ability to offer consumers a greater range of rates and programs, such as time-based pricing.
• On-demand meter reading and remote troubleshooting allow utilities to provide better and more timely consumer support. Utilities have more information at hand about outages and restorations, and are able to provide consumers with reliable information about when power will be restored.
• Smart energy can be integrated with smart homes to provide both consumers and utilities remote access to the home area network (HAN). For example, consumers can remotely adjust usage during peak periods when prices are high, and utilities can remotely adjust usage during emergencies.

Savings

• Demand response can enable utilities to keep prices low by reducing demand when wholesale prices are high.
• Utilities can post meter readings daily (or at more regular intervals) for consumers to view, which enables consumers to track and modify their energy usage. This provides more timely and immediate feedback than traditional monthly or quarterly statements.
• Utilities can not only notify consumers of peak demand times, but also monitor the extent to which those notifications cause consumers to change their habits and reduce their load during these periods.
• Utilities and consumers both benefit from more accurate billing that is available thanks to the increased granularity of usage information. This gives consumers better control of their usage and passes on the biggest savings to those who use services most efficiently. It also helps to reduce the number of billing inquiries and helps to make those inquiries easier to resolve.

Safety and Conservation

• During emergencies, utilities can create “partial outages” in non-exempt buildings to ensure that power remains available where it is most needed. Partial outages are more economically efficient than full rotating outages because the effects are limited to the reduction of a single discretionary service (such as air conditioning) rather than the elimination of all services.
• When consumers use less power to save money, utilities are better able to manage the power they have available and don’t need to generate as much. This not only reduces costs for the utility (in reducing the number of new power stations that need to be built), it also helps to reduce emissions to satisfy new “green” legislation.

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Daintree Smart Energy Solutions

MeshOperator

Daintree’s MeshOperator provides a comprehensive solution for developing and delivering wireless embedded applications and services based on technologies such as ZigBee and IEEE 802.125.4. It provides components that deliver key features essential for commissioning, operating and managing wireless embedded networks. MeshOperator allows you to deliver a new class of wireless embedded services such as smart energy and energy-efficient commercial and industrial lighting. By using MeshOperator’s off-the-shelf reporting, pre-emptive diagnostics, automatic repair capabilities, and troubleshooting tools, you save the time, cost and effort of developing your own operations and management solution.