Don’t miss the full story, whose reporting from Isabella O’Malley at The Associated Press is the basis of this AI-assisted article.

Ice thermal energy storage systems, also known as ice batteries, are increasingly being adopted by hospitals, schools, commercial buildings and data centers across the United States as a sustainable cooling solution that freezes water at night when electricity is cheapest and uses the ice to provide air conditioning during the day, reducing emissions and electricity costs.

Some key facts:

• Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, freezes 74,000 gallons of water nightly to power its ice battery cooling system, which has saved the facility nearly $4 million since 2016.

• Ice batteries work by freezing water at night when electricity is cheapest, then using the thawing ice to chill water circulating through building pipes during the day to provide cooling without requiring additional energy.

• Companies such as Trane Technologies, Nostromo Energy and Ice Energy are seeing growing demand for ice thermal energy storage systems in schools, commercial buildings, government facilities, and data centers.

• Data centers consumed more than 4% of U.S. electricity in 2023, with projections showing that number could reach 12% by 2028, and 30% to 40% of their energy use goes to cooling.

• California is the largest market for ice battery technology because its grid relies heavily on solar power during the day but switches to polluting energy sources like natural gas after sunset.

• Ice batteries reduce strain on the electrical grid during peak demand times and lower monthly electricity bills by storing cooling capacity that doesn’t require energy to activate.

• Energy experts consider ice batteries a safer alternative to lithium batteries for health care settings and senior homes because lithium batteries pose fire risks.

• Norton Audubon Hospital’s energy costs were $278,000 lower in the first year after installing its ice battery system in 2018.

READ MORE: Buildings turn to ’ice batteries’ for sustainable air conditioning

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