Nostromo will use funds to deploy its IceBrick® thermal energy storage systems in 193 commercial buildings across California
IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Nostromo Energy, provider of the IceBrick® system, a virtual power plant (VPP)-enabled thermal energy storage solution for commercial and industrial buildings, announced today that it has received a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $305.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO). The proposed financing would be used by Nostromo for Project IceBrick® – the first, wide-scale deployment of Nostromo’s technology to reduce costs, emissions, and grid strain related to electricity for commercial cooling.
If finalized, the loan will finance the deployment of IceBrick® installations at up to 193 commercial buildings and facilities across California. Nostromo will also target installing at least 20% of these projects in disadvantaged communities, further improving the reliability of local systems. Project IceBrick® has the potential to create more than 200 jobs, including over 170 peak construction jobs. Over the 5-year construction period, the project will also create more than 874 annual job equivalents, including hiring installation contractors from disadvantaged communities when possible.
The project could also enable the state’s bulk power system to avoid up to 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions over its lifetime by installing a potential equivalent of 170 MW (450 MWh) of behind-the-meter, or on-site, storage capacity in buildings – while making power more reliable and affordable.
Seventy-four percent of all electricity in the US is consumed by buildings, with approximately half used to maintain thermal conditions, representing the largest load on both buildings and the power grid. California is the second-largest total energy consumer by state in the US and has set a target of being a 60% clean energy grid by 2030 and 100% by 2045.
Nostromo’s IceBrick® ice-based thermal energy storage (TES) technology reduces costs, emissions, and grid-congestion associated with the largest energy use in large commercial buildings-HVAC. The IceBrick® systems charge when electricity is cheap and clean (when renewables are available) and discharge later for use when power is both expensive and polluting. The IceBrick storage cells are 100% US-made from recycled or recyclable materials. All IceBrick® systems are centrally managed for grid-integration as a virtual power plant (VPP). They are compatible for new buildings or retrofitting on properties including hotels, offices, data centers, and hospitals. Host building owners can install IceBrick® systems without any capital or other upfront costs under Nostromo’s “Energy Storage-as-a-Service” (ESaaS) program.
Project IceBrick® is the third VPP project that the LPO has announced and the first to use TES. The potential for VPPs to alleviate grid load is significant as peak hours air conditioning accounts for approximately 50% of US electricity load during those hours. VPPs are aggregations of electrified, grid-connected devices, including grid interactive efficient buildings. They reduce utilities’ reliance on natural gas peaker plants and the strain on transmission and distribution infrastructure by intelligently time-shifting cooling loads to shave electricity demand from times of peak usage, when electricity is most carbon-intensive. As a VPP, Project IceBrick supports a higher rate of grid asset utilization, further tempering cost increases for Californians, who face some of the highest electricity bills in the nation.
“We’re excited to help fulfill the vision of the DOE and LPO to make VPPs a key resource of the modern grid by serving up to 20% of its peak loads and making power more secure, affordable and clean,” said Yoram Ashery, CEO of Nostromo Energy. “This project will benefit not only commercial buildings, but also electricity consumers in general, create hundreds of good paying domestic jobs, and reduce emissions from gas peaker plants which mostly impact disadvantaged communities around them.”
The loan guarantee for Project IceBrick would be issued under the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Financing for the first Project IceBrick will be provided, subject to the outstanding required approval, by the DOE guaranteed loan of up to $305.5 million (inclusive of $1.85 million of capitalized interest), and in addition project equity, for which a term sheet has been executed with a private equity management firm, and investment tax credits (ITC). Nostromo has recently completed the sale of the ITC earned on its first IceBrick® system. In conjunction with Project IceBrick, Independence Point Securities is the exclusive financial advisor to Nostromo Energy.
This conditional commitment indicates DOE’s intent to finance the project, however, DOE must complete an environmental review, and the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, commercial, and financial conditions before the Department can decide whether to enter into definitive financing documents and fund the loan guarantee.
For more information, review the DOE’s announcement blog.
About Nostromo Energy
Nostromo Energy’s ice-based energy storage solution is redefining energy storage for commercial and industrial buildings, enabling them to become sustainable energy storage assets and reduce their energy costs and carbon emissions. Nostromo’s IceBrick® system uses ice to store energy when electricity prices are low and renewable energy is abundant, and later discharge the energy to avoid purchasing electricity that is both carbon-intensive and expensive. In this way, Nostromo helps accelerate the renewable revolution and paves the way to a carbon-free electric grid, while offering building owners a safe, clean, and financially beneficial energy storage solution. The IceBrick® is non-flammable, modular, and compact, easily retrofitted to existing commercial and industrial buildings. To learn more about Nostromo and the IceBrick® technology, visit www.nostromo.energy.
Nostromo Energy’s IceBrick® System
Nostromo’s IceBrick system is composed of thermal storage cells that are modular and compact, allowing for installation in a variety of building types as well as various locations within a building, such as in a basement or on a roof. It operates by using regular electricity to freeze a water-based solution during the hours when the grid’s electricity supply is at its most abundant and clean. The stored energy in the frozen IceBricks is then used to help power the building’s cooling system during hours of peak demand, reducing the need to rely on power from the grid at these times, which are the most expensive and when the grid faces highest demand and produces electricity from the most carbon-intensive and polluting sources. Nostromo’s VPP software can control operation and performance of IceBrick systems either as standalone systems or in concert as a VPP. The IceBrick storage cells are manufactured entirely in the US, from partially recycled and 100% recyclable materials.
Contact:
Rebecca Ash
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