Not All Kilowatts Are Created Equal

The world increasingly understands that zero-carbon electricity from renewables is the answer to our energy problem. National and state-level bodies have committed to aggressive zero-carbon goals – and corporations are pushed to adopt them. That leaves you trying to reduce the amount of power your building uses in order to reduce scope 2 emissions (Emissions from Electricity).

Traditionally, suggestions for reducing the use of electricity have included replacing lighting with LEDs, replacing power-hungry appliances, changing the set point on the thermostat, adding motion sensors, and even unplugging appliances when they are not in use. But for many residential customers, these are not feasible scenarios – and for buildings, factories, hotels, and other large facilities, they are extremely challenging due to their operation. The fact is that electricity-based heating, cooling, and ventilation systems alone account for nearly half of the overall energy use in commercial buildings, to say nothing of lights, computer systems, and more. Those electricity needs are not likely to change.

And yet, considering just the amount of power is only the beginning. It’s a good start, but it’s only scratching the surface.  

Unpacking Energy

When it comes to better energy consumption – the broad strokes alone are not enough. The fundamental differences in time of use make all the difference. 

There are two kinds of energy as defined by carbon intensity because not all kilowatts are created equal. 

There is good, inexpensive renewable solar or wind energy that emits near-zero carbon. 
There is also bad, polluting, fossil fuel-made energy that is expensive and loaded with carbon.

Of course, the more electricity we can generate with good energy, the better off we will be. Even a small amount of bad kilowatts can have a huge impact on the carbon bottom line.

When you consume the energy is key, as it determines which kind you use. 

On a perfect sunny morning, the grid will be providing you with solar or wind-generated electricity, giving you good, clean, cheap energy. 

But the sun doesn’t shine 24/7 so you won’t get it round the clock. During peak hours when your building requires the most energy and the sun has gone down, you end up using the bad energy instead.

Meeting aggressive decarbonization goals and reducing your building’s carbon bottom line without impacting its activities – means not just understanding the big-picture amount of energy it needs, but starting to focus on when and what kind of energy it uses, so the usage can be shifted to clean, renewable-based power. 

During peak hours when your building requires the most energy and the sun has gone down, you end up using the bad energy instead.

Making the Shift

It seems ironic. There is energy generated from the wind and the sun that is clean. It’s just not always available. And not when you need it most. That has been the hiccup in the larger story of renewable energy. Like any other superpower, it can only be an agent of change if you are able to channel it.

Nostromo’s storage system is that critical channel – allowing you to literally “make hay while the sun shines,” capturing good energy when it’s available and storing it, so it can be used in the peak hours.

Safely on-prem

Energy storage installed in your building shifts the paradigm. Buildings do have the space to accommodate them. Lithium-ion batteries have been the most common form of energy storage. But as they’re flammable, not sustainable, and dangerous – only 1% of energy storage installed actually goes to commercial and industrial buildings. With Nostromo’s safe, sustainable, and innovative technology, energy storage can now securely be installed in buildings. And this makes it possible – safely and on-site – to bottle the good renewable energy while there is plenty of it, then store and use it later when there isn’t any. This is a real game-changer. 

Innovative opportunities

When storage is located on-prem, near where the energy will be used, it opens new doors of opportunity – to move beyond batteries into safer thermal solutions, including energy stores in the form of water and ice. And when they are implemented in flexible modular designs like the Nostromo IceBrick^® system, they become especially valuable to large buildings like offices, malls, hospitals, and hotels. With energy storage, a building will experience no impact to operations or lifestyle – and it will enable better, smarter energy management using a range of innovative strategies. 

Ultimately, energy storage empowers buildings to be more deliberate and to make choices about how they use electricity. So, they can consume as much carbon-free power as possible and avoid using the electricity made by fossil fuels-based power plants during peak hours. Energy storage is the sharpest, most effective tool that buildings have in order to slash their carbon from electricity use – and lower their electricity bill in the process.

You don’t control the good and bad energy your building gets from the grid. But with energy storage, you can control when you use it. And that translates into significantly reducing your building’s carbon footprint and energy bill.