Irish College Stores Energy From Wind Turbine

CALMAC installed its IceBank energy storage tanks at the Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in Ireland.

A large commercial on-campus wind turbine creates energy for the making of ice, which is then stored in the tanks. The next day, the ice is melted to cool the historic PJ Carroll building when it is full of occupants and the outside temperatures are at their highest and demand for electricity is peaking.

In 2012 alone, the wind turbine equipped with energy storage was able to produce 1,440 MWh, 79 percent of which was consumed by the university with the remaining sold back to the grid. The turbine generates 40 percent of the campus’ electrical energy requirements.

Originally built in the late 1960’s as a cigarette factory, the 191,000-sq-foot PJ Carroll Building is considered one of the finest examples of Miesien architecture in Europe. Approximately 118,000-square-feet of the facility were remodeled in 2010 as part of a college expansion project, which included the incorporation of CALMAC’s IceBank energy storage technology.

The tanks make more efficient use of the variable supply of wind energy. With the wind turbine and storage technology, DkIT has smoothed its electricity grid demand profile by shifting a portion of the PJ Carroll Building’s demand from on-peak to off-peak times, allowing more renewable wind energy to be used on site.