The UK launch of the IceBat cold thermal battery range was held recently at the Institution of Engineering & Technology in London, with the event relaunching the Fafco IceBat back into the UK market after a 22-year break.
Pure Thermal – Fafco’s exclusive sales and technical partner/distributor for the UK and Irish markets, said the relaunch ‘centered on the developing UK need to store and load shift energy – whether this be in the form of electricity, or in this case thermal batteries’. Attendees learnt about the ‘well-proven’ IceBat Thermal Battery range that provides single unit battery capacities from 650 kWh to 20,000 kWh, and is manufactured by French-based Fafco.
With over 1500 units operating worldwide, and an installed capacity of 3.6 GWH, IceBat is an ‘advanced’ Cold Thermal Battery that reportedly enhances cooling system efficiency while significantly reducing operating costs and carbon emissions. Pure Thermal explains that ‘in simple terms the IceBat enables a cooling system to store energy by converting electrical energy into stored cold thermal energy within the IceBat cold battery’. The launch event was attended by over 50 people from a cross-section of industries, who learned how Icebat cold batteries can be applied within both retrofit and new installations.
Garry Broadbent of Pure Thermal, which specialises in advanced low carbon heating and cooling and energy-efficient solutions for the UK and Irish markets, said: “Even though
cold thermal batteries have not been a mainstream selection choice in the UK for over 20 years it’s really encouraging to be able to demonstrate current use at scale in Europe. With our continuing, grid constraints, and the opportunities to utilise low cost/low carbon electricity in the UK, we’re actually now in a period where cold thermal batteries can be applied to provide real benefits.”
Fafco last provided equipment to the UK market in 2003, but says that now – ‘due to the clear need to increase UK energy storage’ – the decision has been made to return to the UK to offer cold battery solutions here.
The IceBat launch provided a complete technical overview covering the IceBat patented heat exchanger technology that Pure Thermal and Fafco say ‘enable high levels of efficiency to be delivered at scale to match the demands of both retrofit and new applications’. A number of application examples were demonstrated by Yannick Ropartz of Fafco via case studies of installed systems, across sectors ranging from building services through to manufacturing and production.
“We believe the UK market will offer the same potential as our existing European markets,” commented Yannick Ropartz. “There is no reason why the application of the IceBat should be different from country to country, and the attendance at our launch really reinforced this.”
In addition to the Pure Thermal and Fafco speakers, Mark Walker, Chair of the CIBSE Healthcare Group, provided input from CIBSE and specifier viewpoints, presenting a historical overview of ice storage, and a summary of ‘where cold thermal energy storage can deliver benefits moving forward within both retrofit and new cooling applications’, which stimulated positive feedback and questions.