Ice Energy Heats Up with $33M for Icy Air Conditioning

Katie Fehrenbacher on October 27, 2008

Amidst the venture funding hangover that appears to be descending onto the cleantech industry, the deals that are being made are especially notable. On Tuesday Ice Energy, a company that has developed an ice-based energy storage and air conditioning system for buildings, will announce that it has raised $33 million in the first portion of a Series B round of funding from private equity firm Energy Capital Partners. Energy Capital Partners has also committed up to $150 million in equity project financing to help Ice Energy install its systems and sell the power from energy-efficiency projects to utilities.
Ice Energy’s “Ice Bear” air conditioner units are cost effective and energy efficient because they move the cost of cooling to off-peak hours when it’s less expensive. The units create ice during off-peak hours, like during the middle of the night, and then during peak hours, like the middle of the day, the systems cool buildings by circulating chilled refrigerant to the coil of a standard air conditioning system. Ice Energy CEO Frank Ramirez goes as far as calling it the only really efficient means of storing energy out there.
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June 5: What’s Interesting Today:

Om Malik on June 5, 2008

  • Mark Cuban has an exact opposite view of Tiered Broadband than mine. What can I say… I state my case here.
  • TeliaSonera To France Telecom: You want to buy us for $41 billion? Talk to the hand, mon ami!
  • “Going green” means new kind of chips and better chip design. Seriously, as one of my editors said: Everything starts and ends with silicon.
  • MegaFon, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and VimpelCom — three wireless majors in Russia — are going to roll out WCDMA and WCDMA-HSPA (aka 3G) networks later this year, according to GSMA Mobile World Congress’s Wireless Intelligence Report. Russia is the fourth largest mobile market behind China, India, and the United States. Wow, how quickly the world of wireless changes.
  • Fiber to the home is helping Minneapolis, Minn.-based network equipment maker ADC Communciations overcome its recent setbacks. The company reported blockbuster sales and profits for second quarter 2008, and CEO Robert Switz said things will get better. “Our customers are investing in the infrastructure that delivers broadband services to business, residential and mobile subscribers,” he said.
  • Small carriers are banding together and asking the FCC to block Qwest price hikes. I have written about this forbearance folly before, so you know how I feel about it.
  • 6 reasons why you shouldn’t be a web worker. Oh man… I can think of one reason for being a web worker: working at home 😉
  • Newteevee slowly gaining on oldteevee. I am not surprised.