The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has issued a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $305.5 million to Nostromo Energy, provider of the IceBrick system.
The funds will be used for the first wide-scale deployment of Nostromo’s technology, a virtual power plant (VPP)-enabled thermal energy storage solution for commercial and industrial buildings. If finalized, the loan will finance the deployment of IceBrick installations at up to 193 commercial buildings and facilities across California.
IceBrick systems charge when electricity is cheap and clean (when renewables are available) and discharge later when power is expensive and polluting. The systems are centrally managed for grid-integration as a VPP.
They are compatible for new buildings or for retrofits on properties including hotels, offices, data centers, and hospitals. Building owners can install the systems without any capital or other upfront costs under Nostromo’s “Energy Storage-as-a-Service” (ESaaS) program.
The project could also enable the state’s bulk power system to avoid up to 500,000 tons 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, according to a Nostromo news release.
