Ice Energy introduces a green way to solve an age-old problem: energy storage. While most of its competitors use batteries composed of materials that are not environmentally friendly, Ice Energy does the opposite.
The Ice Bear™ is a rooftop system that essentially is a thermal battery, which attaches to standard cooling systems on commercial and industrial buildings. For most regions in North America, peak energy usage during the afternoon on the hottest days of the year, causing utilities and grids supply issues and carrying excess capacity to meet those needs for only a few hours a day.
The Ice Bear™ solves that problem by freezing water during off-peak hours overnight and then using that thermal load to cool buildings and offices during the day during peak hours.
This significantly reduces costs by allowing energy to be stored during cheap overnight hours and used during the day. With Mercury’s help, Ice Energy has deployed well over a thousand units throughout California, Maine, 11 other states, as well as in the UK, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore to its utility partners.
This significantly reduces costs by allowing energy to be stored during cheap overnight hours and used during the day. With Mercury’s help, Ice Energy has deployed well over a thousand units throughout California, Maine, 11 other states, as well as in the UK, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore to its utility partners.
Manufacturing Expertise
Mercury’s extensive experience in metal fabrication, assembly, and thermal assembly lead to a partnership between Ice Energy and Mercury in 2010. Mercury gave Ice Energy the confidence to manage the supply chain and manufacture complete, tested units and deliver them to sites throughout North America.
Early Design Intervention
Mercury worked closely with Ice Energy inventors, engineers, and production personnel to integrate manufacturability into each component for a robust, repeatable solution. For example, Mercury offered design insight on proper tolerances and allowances so that parts fit together correctly at final assembly. In another instance, Mercury leveraged knowledge of material joining and finishing to offer a lower-cost solution incorporating riveting and galvanized skid components vs. costly welding and paint.
“Mercury’s dedicated engineering team and collaboration with Ice Energy ultimately led to our success with delivering a reliable system,” says Ian Ellis, Director of Manufacturing for Ice Energy. “We worked together as a team, and Mercury exceeded our expectations.”
“Mercury’s dedicated engineering team and collaboration with Ice Energy ultimately led to our success with delivering a reliable system.”
– Ian Ellis, Director of Manufacturing for Ice Energy
Fully Integrated Solution
Leveraging our supply chain and managing the sourcing of thousands of components was a value-added benefit to Ice Energy. Mercury dedicated resources to making sure vendor contracts were in order and parts were delivered to our assembly lines on-time. Mercury completes the full final assembly – including electronics, cable assembly integration, PCBA & control box assembly, and fully charging the unit with R410A refrigerant. The units then enter a 25 hour test phase at a dedicated test station that completely fills, freezes, and melts while running test diagnostics. After successful diagnostic testing, the units are packaged at Mercury, stacked and loaded on flatbeds, and shipped directly to their destination. Quality control is very important, since the first person who touches the product is the installer.
Both companies leveraged what they do best to provide the best benefit at the lowest cost. “Mercury does it all, from start to finish. Their core competency of supply chain management, integrated manufacturing, and logistics allows us to focus on what we do best – developing new technology and providing the solutions to our customers,” note Ian,
“Mercury does it all, from start to finish. Their core competency of supply chain management, integrated manufacturing, and logistics allows us to focus on what we do best.”
– Ian Ellis, Director of Manufacturing for Ice Energy
COMPANY SPECIFICS
Company Ice Energy, LLC
Region North America
Industry Energy
Website thuleenergystorage.com
PROCESSES USED
- Supply Chain Management
- Design for Manufacture
- Fabrication
- Welding
- Paint
- Integrated Assembly & Test
- Logistics
SOLUTIONS
- Dedicated floor space to the Ice Energy Assembly Line
- Full production capability of 100 functional Ice Bears per month.
- Warehousing of finished product on site
- Permanent Test Fixture
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