Ice Energy Opening New R&D Center to Develop New Thermal Energy Storage Solutions
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Ice Energy, a leading provider of thermal energy storage systems, announced it will launch a new research and development center located in Riverside, California, this summer. Among other projects, Ice Energy will pursue a line of smaller residential solutions and continue to extend the range of applications supported by its Ice Bear solution.
The company recently was awarded a five-year contract from Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) to provide 5 megawatts of behind-the-meter thermal energy storage using Ice Energy’s proprietary Ice Bear system. The new 22,000-square-foot R&D facility will also serve as a staging area for the Riverside Ice Bear program as well as support Ice Energy’s 25.6 megawatt Southern California Edison (SCE) project.
“When selecting a location for our R&D facility we considered a number of California locations. The city of Riverside proved to be the clear winner,” said Mike Hopkins, CEO of Ice Energy. Explained Chris Tillotson, CIO and head of R&D for Ice Energy, “The city’s commitment to high technology business development in the form of grants and incentives, the University of California, Riverside, and the growing number of high tech and HVAC businesses in the area all contributed significantly to our decision.”
Ice Energy will be hiring a team of 12 to staff the center, which will serve as its primary research and development location and also its application engineering facility.
“The city is very pleased Ice Energy has selected Riverside as the location for its research and development base. While the city’s Ice Bear program is providing peak power reduction on the most impacted parts of our grid, Ice Energy’s new R&D facility will be providing jobs, internships, and learning opportunities for our community,” said Girish Balachandran, general manager, Riverside Public Utilities.
