Ice storage system helps Texas schools melt away energy use
The Alamo Heights Independent School District (AHISD) in San Antonio, TX, recently employed ice-based energy storage technology to cool more than 325,000 sq ft across five buildings on its high school campus. The energy storage tanks were provided by Calmac.
The school district, which was already using several solar systems, a 500-kW solar system and another five solar arrays totaling 400 kW to help power daily operations, needed a way to reduce energy consumption during expensive peak demand hours. Installing Calmac’s IceBank® tanks at its high school campus has allowed the district to store cheap nighttime energy from the grid in the form of ice that can then be melted to cool buildings during the day. As a result, the district has reduced peak energy consumption by more than 20%, despite an increase in square footage and student population.