Ice batteries are a new form of energy storage that freezes water at night when electricity is cheaper, and uses the stored cold to cool buildings during the day, saving significant amounts of money and energy because of air conditioning.
Inventors such as Nostromo Energy and Ice Energy, who are refining the technology, say it costs around $250 per kWh to install, about half the price of lithium-ion storage, and have created IceBrick modules and Ice Bear systems that can be used for both commercial and domestic use.
The main benefit of ice batteries is that they don’t degrade chemically and their water is endlessly reusable, but their downside is that they only store cooling energy, meaning they can’t be used to power electric vehicles or household appliances.
