Cool technology on trial at food and beverage businesses

Heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) consumes around 22% of all electricity produced and is responsible for around 50% of peak demand on the electricity grid.

Glaciem Cooling Technologies Pty Ltd (Glaciem) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have been developing a low-cost thermal energy storage technology that will store and discharge energy using a heat transfer process. This occurs at a temperature suited to the specific application using special material.

The technology has the added benefit of using natural refrigerants rather than commonly used synthetic refrigerants which can be harmful to the environment. It uses an advanced control and forecasting system to optimise the system’s operation based on weather forecasts, electricity price forecasts and customer demand forecasts to optimise the storage system to maximise customer savings.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has now announced $2 million in funding to Glaciem to demonstrate the technical and economic value of integrating thermal energy storage with renewable energy into (HVAC&R) applications.

The $4.95 million project will build on the outcomes of previous ARENA funded research and demonstrate Glaciem’s system at three different customer sites:

• Ceravolo Orchards in Oakbank, South Australia, will install Glaciem’s system with on-site solar PV generation to manage peak demand and optimise the storage and use of renewable energy in a cold storage system.

• Pernod Ricard Winemakers in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, will install Glaciem’s system with on-site solar PV generation to reduce exposure to peak electricity costs for process cooling.

• Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville, Queensland, will expand the existing solar PV capacity at the site and integrate this with Glaciem’s technology to optimise the air conditioning and water cooling load at the site.


ARENA CEO Darren Miller said Glaciem’s thermal storage combined with renewable energy generation demonstrates an innovative solution that will help industry to reduce emissions and derive more value from on-site renewable energy.

“These pilot sites trialling Glaciem’s technology will demonstrate that refrigeration equipment, grid supply and on-site renewable energy generation can be reliably integrated across a range of commercial businesses.

“Helping industry reduce emissions is one of our three investment priorities, and heating and cooling is a huge driver of our electricity consumption including peak demand, which drives higher electricity prices for everyone.

“There are significant opportunities across the heating and cooling sector to reduce energy costs and emissions by combining renewable energy alternatives with innovative storage technologies, and we’re proud to support a home-grown start-up like Glaciem do just that,” Miller said.

Glaciem Managing Director Julian Hudson said: “The project aims to commercialise previous research funded by ARENA and will demonstrate that there are real viable alternatives for end users of HVAC&R that drastically reduce operating costs, maximise the economic potential of renewable energy assets and reduce direct and indirect CO₂ emissions.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Waldemar Hölzer