Thermal energy storage and renewables are the wave of the future
September 9, 2014
The presence of thermal energy storage in combination with renewable energy is growing as more organizations look for ways to manage their peak power usage and reduce operating costs. Installing energy storage tanks that capture and store energy during off-peak hours for use during the most energy-intensive times of the day allows companies to cut their utility expenses and ensure they can attract the most cost competitive energy prices. In this way, organizations can protect their finances, optimize energy procurement and promote more eco-friendly building and environmental options.
Building better businesses
According to Renewable Energy Focus, CALMAC® is a major player in helping businesses reach green construction ideals. The company specializes in IceBank® energy storage and its recent participation in the California Lottery Building installation highlights the important role in which its products and services are applicable.
The California Lottery Building project includes a new main building plus an energy pavilion that is air-conditioned by two 200-ton chillers and 2,000 ton-hours of thermal energy storage. These storage tanks create and store ice during off-peak hours so that during the warmer hours of the day, when energy consumption is at its highest demand and is most expensive to pull from regional grids, the building and its pavilion have access to their own air-conditioning supply as the ice melts.
On top of that, any energy allocated to the chiller and energy storage tanks for the pavilion is offset by the renewable energy generated by the solar panels, thus the pavilion can be classified as net zero. The pavilion has two air handlers totaling 57.5 tons, as well as 100 kW PV solar panels.
According to Mark M. MacCracken, CEO of CALMAC and former U.S. Green Building Council Chair, this system helped the California Lottery Building achieve net-zero energy efficiency.
"One of the ways to think about this particular building is that we were defining net zero for certain parts of it," MacCracken specified in Renewable Energy Focus. "Solar buildings don't necessarily reduce the peak demand of the building; they reduce the overall usage. That's where you need storage, and it has to be an integral part."
A growing trend
The green building movement is going to continue to move forward, as MacCracken stated. Three billion sq.ft. of LEED Certified space exists today. Before LEED, very little was done to make buildings more sustainable. Now architects, engineers and building owners are looking at building design and construction in a different light. They are considering holistic, systems-based solutions to solve problems of energy use. Applying use of renewables and energy storage for net zero building is the wave of the future.
