Ice-based technology promises lower energy usage

The saying "A kilowatt saved is more valuable than a kilowatt built" applies here. Not needing to turn on air conditioning systems would be a way of preventing overload during times of peak need, especially for government buildings and large industrial complexes.

I am thinking that even large blocks of energy from renewables could be stored and then later released with this method. What is required is the turning on of the large ice producing systems during the times coinciding with strong winds (turbine power) and bright sunlight (solar).

adrianakau@aol.com

There's talk about separating CO2 from power plant emissions and storing it (I think not in old oil wells). I'm looking for infornation on how they plan to separate from the nitrogen etc. I may have some ideas on how to do it mechanically and viably.

Please respond to danrob@efn.org

This sounded like a viable short-term band-aid to me as well. However, the only system that I have personally seen, installed at the North Charleston Elementary School in South Carolina, has been plagued with problems since day one. When I was given a tour of the school, I learned that it was not working, had not worked for weeks, and they were having a hard time getting it to work.

This could be real. What many people don't recognize is that many of the cleanest forms of reliable power are constant in nature. Power is cheap in the middle of the night. Its cheap because demand is low.

We need appliances with smarts like this to load balance. What will push this into consumers are smart meters that chage me less for electricty during the night - and more in the day. Depending on which agreement I sign, I could agree to pay very high prices during supply squeezes. The result would be that AC would go off - or go on a lot less when power peaks at 25c during a hot day.

Paying one price for a commodity like electricity leads to demand spikes.

Ted Taylor, foremost US nuclear weapons designer, experimented with ice energy storage several decades ago. As I recall, he decided that it wasn't worth the effort. John McPhee wrote about it in "The Curve of Binding Energy".

Adrian in his comments has the right idea, why not store energy from renewable sources such as wind, especially when there is no demand and that energy potential is not captured or wasted.Wind Enewrgy can be readily stored as well as Solar energy without resorting to chemical batteries, the surplus energy can be stored as compressed air, which when expanded in a Turbo-expander generator during high demand periods, can provide additional kW/hrs. The by-product of this expansion is very cold air which can be harvested to make ice, and stored for day time use by central cooling systems. Using the T-CAES system www.eniswindgen.com for storage and generation can greatly benefit the variable nature of Wind and Solar energy.