by Shane Henson — July 22, 2013—CALMAC, a global manufacturer of energy storage systems, recently announced the successful installation of its IceBank energy storage tanks at the Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in Ireland.
CALMAC’s tanks are being used to store energy from what is billed as the first-ever large commercial on-campus wind turbine in the form of ice, which is then used the next day to cool students and faculty in the historical and architecturally protected PJ Carroll building. In 2012 alone, the wind turbine equipped with energy storage was able to produce 1,440 megawatt hours (MWh), 79 percent of which was consumed by the university and the remaining sold back to the grid, says CALMAC.
Originally built in the late 1960s as a cigarette factory, the 191,000-square-foot PJ Carroll Building is considered one of the finest examples of Miesien architecture in Europe, created by German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
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 provided the perfect solution for making more efficient use of the variable supply of wind energy and capitalizing on previously underutilized wind turbine power generation, while protecting the architectural integrity of the structure. Today, the “urban turbine” is generating 40 percent of the campus’ electrical energy requirements.
DkIT officials say they are pleased with their decision to invest in the tanks. “The installation went without any problems. The start-up and testing was also quite smooth,” said Christian Maas, building services technical officer at DkIT. “Capturing excess wind energy by using CALMAC’s IceBank tanks has really helped to maximize the use of renewable energy on campus.”
