Left to right: Jen Szaro, James Bell, Rebecca Troutfetter

Viking Cold Solutions is recognized by the Association of Energy Services Professionals’ (AESP) inaugural Innovations in Demand Flexibility award today at their annual conference in San Antonio, Texas.  The award was received by James Bell, Viking Cold Solutions’ President and CEO, and presented by Jen Szaro, President & CEO of AESP, and Rebecca Troutfetter, Vice President of Engineering & Corporate Impact at CLEAResults.

AESP, a leading industry trade group advancing the energy industry, introduced the Innovations in Demand Flexibility award this year.  This competition for the award spanned various demand flexibility programs, such as renewable energy projects, distributed energy resource programs, demand response initiatives, microgrids, decarbonization efforts, and electrification programs.

Viking Cold Solutions’ Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology consistently achieves positive impacts on business operations, the electricity grid, and the environment.  Beyond its energy demand management and electrical efficiency achievements, TES helps address critical issues like food waste and food insecurity by better preserving food quality while also conserving electricity.  Additionally, TES’s unique ability to store and more efficiently utilize renewable energy assists with efforts to accelerate the decarbonization of the power grid, contributing to a more sustainable energy landscape.  Viking Cold Solutions monitors all sites 24/7/365 to ensure clients’ peace of mind, and all parties can view performance metrics and historical data through the cloud-based portal.

Some examples of demand flexibility and efficiency include the deployment of Viking Cold’s innovative energy technology in regional food banks from coast to coast which resulted in quantifiable and meaningful positive impacts.  By reducing energy costs, TES technology provides hundreds of thousands of additional meals to Americans suffering from food insecurity. This further demonstrates Viking Cold’s commitment to addressing energy and environmental challenges while creating a positive economic and social impact through practical local initiatives.

Viking Cold Solutions builds lasting partnerships with our clients and stays engaged throughout the life of facilities with ongoing data collection, optimization initiatives, and utility incentive programs.  Through these initiatives, TES technology has saved over 44 million kWh of electricity, avoided over 34 thousand tons of GHG emissions, and earned millions of dollars in incentives for our clients.

For further details on the AESP Energy Awards, please visit AESP.

To learn more about Viking Cold’s technology and how it can reduce energy consumption to enhance the sustainability of cold storage facilities, reach out to Viking Cold today!

In recent years the popularity of frozen food has steadily increased in the United States.  However, during the pandemic, frozen food experienced a surge in demand.  The Food Institute reports that frozen food sales increased by 21%, with the pandemic serving as a major contributing factor to this growth.  The pandemic-induced lockdowns and social distancing measures led to significant changes in people’s eating habits, and many turned to frozen foods for their convenience, long shelf life, nutritional value, and ability to be stored in bulk.

Source: Quartz

Despite a steady increase in dollar sales, unit sales of frozen food fell in 2021 and 2022 by 3.2% and 5.1%, respectively, highlighting the potential impact of inflation on frozen food costs, reported the Food & Beverage Insider.  Notwithstanding these declines, unit sales are still higher than they were before the pandemic, demonstrating that the demand for frozen foods remains strong – in part thanks to millennials who have now become frozen food’s largest consumers.

According to the Food Navigator, older millennial shoppers, who are approaching the age of 40, represent 48% of the consumers of frozen foods.  This generation prioritizes health and wellness and values a wider range of culinary options that use premium ingredients with fewer additives and preservatives.  Alongside nutrition, they also demand convenience and sustainability in their food choices.  With over 3,700 options in the frozen food section, there is something for every taste and lifestyle, notes the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association.

The growing popularity of frozen food has led 29% of consumers to expand their freezer space since the pandemic began, reported the American Frozen Food Institute.  As demand for frozen food products increases, retailers are seeking ways to optimize their freezer sections while also reducing energy consumption for higher quality and more efficient frozen food storage.  Companies like Viking Cold Solutions are helping retailers and distributors to not only improve the efficiency of their cold storage system by up to 50% but also increase facility resiliency.  These advancements indicate a promising and sustainable future for frozen food.

With all the demands on consumers’ lives, the greater convenience and quality of frozen foods meet a growing priority.  The frozen food industry now has innovative new technologies to sustainably address consumers’ needs while reducing energy costs.  Given the challenges of inflation and an unstable economy, it will be interesting to observe the further developments of frozen foods and cold storage technologies over the next few years.

Learn more about Viking Cold’s sustainable Thermal Energy Storage technology here.

The Houston Food Bank distributes over 158 million meals every year to people struggling with hunger.  With the help of more than 1,600 community partners to combat hunger and food insecurity, the Houston Food Bank provides individuals with food assistance as well as programs and services targeted at achieving long-term food stability.

According to the Houston Food Bank, around 1 million people in southeast Texas are food insecure – 1 in 7 people face hunger as well as 1 in 5 children.  Following the pandemic, food insecurity and unemployment increased dramatically.  53 million people sought assistance from food banks and neighborhood programs in 2021 to put food on their table.

To help manage energy costs, the Houston Food Bank is partnering with Viking Cold Solutions and plans to install Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology in their temperature-controlled facilities.  TES systems are a cost-effective way to store and manage the large amounts of energy required by refrigeration equipment in cold storage facilities.

Developed and patented by Viking Cold, the TES system will reduce electrical consumption and demand during peak energy usage hours inside the Houston Food Bank’s cold storage warehouse and will improve temperature stability inside their freezer.  Cold storage facilities, such as frozen food warehouses, have the highest energy demand per cubic foot of any building.  During peak energy use periods, they can account for up to 70 percent of the total electricity bill for organizations.

The TES system’s energy savings will enable the Houston Food Bank to offer thousands of additional meals every year and feed more people.  Viking Cold’s partnership will help the Houston Food Bank better manage its energy usage by providing cutting-edge technology that will benefit the organization and support its mission for many years to come.

Viking Cold Solutions has partnered with food programs across the United States as part of the Feeding America network, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.  For more information about Viking Cold Solutions’ Thermal Energy Storage systems, click here.

Energy storage is a rapidly evolving technology and has been advancing to the forefront of the electrical industry, shifting the focus to the effective integration of renewable energy.  Various international enterprises recognized the increasing value of energy storage and have created World Energy Storage Day to commemorate its significance.  This global movement is celebrated on September 22^nd every year by policy officials, associations, and industries working to promote and adopt energy storage, e-mobility, and green technology for a more sustainable future.

According to the Energy Storage Association, energy storage is an enabling technology; it saves consumers money, improves reliability and resilience, integrates generation sources, and helps reduce environmental impacts.  It’s a key element for the entire grid, augmenting resources from wind, solar, and hydropower as well as nuclear and fossil fuels, demand-side resources, and system efficiency assets.  By tapping into energy storage during outages, businesses can continue normal operations and avoid costly disruptions.  When demand shifts and baseload resources can’t react quickly enough, energy storage can inject or extract energy to match the load as needed, making the grid more responsive and reducing the need to build backup power plants.

The effectiveness of energy storage is based on its ability to respond quickly to changes in demand, the rate at which energy is lost during the storage process, the total amount of energy it can store, and the speed at which it can be recharged.  More than 90% of global grid battery storage is dominated by lithium-ion batteries, which are today’s most widely used battery storage alternative, reports the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.  However, there are multiple types of energy storage that can provide large-storage capacities, such as pumped hydro, compressed air, and thermal.

With the rapid development of energy storage, business owners and policymakers are looking towards more environmentally friendly sources of energy storage beyond lithium-ion batteries.  According to Precedence Research, the global energy storage systems market size is projected to surpass $435 billion by 2030 and grow at a CAGR of over 8% from 2022 to 2030.

Record investments in energy storage are being fueled by declining costs and new incentives.  As reported by the Environmental Defense Fund, costs for energy storage have declined by 74% since 2013 and are projected to decline 8% per year through the mid 2020s.

In fact, the cost of some storage has decreased so quickly that many utilities are switching to renewable energy combined with storage instead of investing in expensive new natural gas power plants.  Over the next ten years, combining energy storage with renewable energy sources could completely change the way we purchase, sell, and utilize energy.  State and Federal laws, such as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, are also opening new market opportunities and revenue streams, which will be the primary driver of growth outside of cost.  Incentives can bridge market gaps and assist in further market adoption.

In the U.S., certain industries such as cold storage, consume over $50 billion in energy annually.  Refrigeration energy cost is one of the top operating expenses which drives demand from operators for energy reduction technologies.  These businesses include over 4,200 cold storage warehouses, more than 40,000 grocery store freezers, and over 620,000 restaurant freezers.  To help these businesses, Viking Cold Solutions developed and commercialized thermal energy storage technologies that offer both sustainability benefits and deliver proven 20% to 35% energy savings in temperature-controlled environments.

With the growing concern over the prices of fossil fuels, their environmental impacts, and the capacity and resilience of energy grids around the world, stakeholders are increasingly turning their attention to energy storage solutions.  To learn about how thermal energy storage technology reduces energy use and carbon emissions while increasing resiliency, click here.

Energy costs around the U.S. have been climbing leaving consumers wondering “how high will they go?” States such as Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California have the highest electricity rates in the country, with California as the second-largest energy consumer in the nation after Texas. In the last five years, electricity costs in the Los Angeles area exceeded the national average by 34% or more since 2018 – see Chart 1.

Chart 1: ­Average prices for electricity U.S. & Los Angeles

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Despite California’s high-energy consumption, its per capita energy consumption is less than most states due in part to its mild climate and its energy efficiency programs. The Golden State primarily produces electricity from solar, geothermal, and biomass energy, making it one of the most energy-efficient states in the country – but that isn’t enough for California. The state has committed to reaching a goal of 100% renewable and zero-carbon electricity by 2045, and the California Energy Commission (CEC) is leading the way.

The CEC supports energy research and development programs to spur innovation in energy efficiency and has lately completed a major study on the route to zero net energy (ZNE), which includes Viking Cold Solutions’ Thermal Energy Storage (TES) in the blueprint for a path to net zero emissions for commercial buildings. The Viking Cold TES system was installed in the walk-in grocery freezer at a San Francisco Whole Foods store. This installation included Phase Change Materials (PCM) mounted on the ceiling of the walk-in freezer as well as cloud-based intelligent controls integrated with the existing refrigeration controls.

According to the report, refrigeration accounts for a majority of the store’s electrical load, therefore thermal PCM, also known as thermal energy storage or TES, is a promising method for storing small amounts of excess energy. TES allows refrigeration compressors to run less often when energy costs are high (and energy production is low) and to run more often and store thermal energy when energy costs are low (and there is excess generation). This reduces cycling of the compressors and refrigeration energy costs, ultimately improving the efficiency of existing refrigeration systems. This is done by increasing the percentage of the total refrigeration run time that occurs during hours with lower ambient temperatures, thereby running the compressors at higher efficiency levels – see Chart 2.

Chart 2: ­Plot comparing the predicted baseline energy with post-retrofit energy consumption for Viking Cold System

Source: CEC Report, Figure D-9

TES technology combines intelligence with PCM to maximize the energy efficiency of the refrigeration system. Viking Cold PCM cells add thermal mass to a room, providing the ability to hold designated temperatures for much longer periods, which helps reduce refrigeration runtimes. Intelligent controls and an energy-management system help maintain a constant temperature and alert operators about any mechanical malfunction or power outage. The CEC study concluded that TES technology produced 25% energy savings and was proven as an applicable energy conservation measure to help achieve California’s energy efficiency goals. The results of this study were released by the CEC as a blueprint for a successful path to ZNE commercial buildings in California, but this blueprint could easily be one for the entire world.

Read more about Viking Cold’s approach to cold storage efficiency here. For additional information about the CEC study, click here.

Initial results show 20%-30% energy savings on a recent deployment of Thermal Energy Storage technology in a US Cold facility in Tulare, California.

US Cold references the energy saving and carbon reducing technology in their quarterly newsletter- the Shield- accessible here.

Here at Viking Cold we are excited that another world class company has embraced the energy and cost savings of TES technology and the sustainability and carbon reduction that it provides to the cold chain which consumes more electricity than any other source except lighting.

#sustainability #carbonreduction #vikingcoldsolutions

Viking Cold has successfully installed another Thermal Energy Storage (TES) and refrigeration optimization system inside a third-party logistics frozen food warehouse in Mexico. Our client, Frigoríficos ARCOSA, is a leading cold storage provider with distribution centers across Mexico and has over three decades of experience providing temperature-controlled solutions and support services to their food & beverage and retail clients. They are also proud members of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA).

Operating energy-intensive refrigerated facilities in Mexico presents many challenges. Not only do operators like ARCOSA have to deal with the expected business and logistical challenges of cold storage, but the energy market in Mexico has variability which creates difficulties for operations budgets and profitability. After payroll, energy related expenses are typically the second highest cost for cold storage facilities, and refrigeration can be up to 90% of their energy costs. Without technologies and strategies that add energy flexibility, variable energy prices can negatively impact the bottom line.

In Mexico, like many other places around the globe, energy prices vary based on time-of-use with consumption and demand charges significantly higher during peak periods and intermediate peak periods (sometimes referred to as partial peak periods). Because cold storage warehouses must maintain temperatures to protect food quality, technologies that safely reduce refrigeration energy consumption and demand during Mexico’s high-priced periods without loss of temperature control are critical to cold storage profitability.

With these needs in mind, ARCOSA approached Viking Cold to see if refrigeration optimization and TES technology with Phase Change Material (PCM) could provide the energy flexibility needed to reduce energy costs and GHG emissions in their refrigerated warehouses in Mexico. Viking Cold first evaluated their 64,000 square foot freezer in Juquila.

At the time of evaluation and installation, this plant experienced intermediate peak prices up to 17 hours per day and peak prices up to four hours per day with some seasonal variations. The operating strategy had three goals:

1. Minimize energy demand (kW) and reduce energy consumption (kWh) during each of the seasonal peak periods and intermediate periods
2. Maintain temperature protocols
3. Not increase energy use during any period

An interface between existing refrigeration controls and Viking Cold’s refrigeration optimization software was implemented, additional sensors were added, and TES modules containing PCM specifically engineered to the warehouse’s temperature requirements were easily integrated into the existing warehouse infrastructure.

Results have exceeded expectations, since installation of the TES and refrigeration optimization solutions:

• Demand reductions over 380 kW during all peak periods
• Annual weather-normalized consumption reduction of over 400,000 kWh – the equivalent of 280 metric tons of GHG emissions
• Temperatures held within requirements
• Approximately $120,000 (MEX$2,400,000) of annual savings at current energy prices

ARCOSA owner and President Gabriel Guzman noted, “ARCOSA’s partnership with Viking Cold has begun with positive results for both cost reductions and sustainability improvements that we hope to replicate in our other facilities.”

The flexibility Viking Cold provided to manage when and how their refrigeration system uses electricity has provided ARCOSA with confidence that when energy market changes do occur, they have technology-enabled flexibility that reduces energy risks and improves the sustainability of their cold chain operations.

North American Clean Energy has published an article by Viking Cold’s Director of Marketing, Damon Vance, that discusses how many commercial & industrial (C&I) refrigerated warehouses across the country are contributing to solutions for some of the challenges on the electrical grid. The C&I facilities in the cold chain, when utilizing energy storage and refrigeration optimization solutions like Viking Cold’s, represent a significant opportunity to help reach the goals of utility operators and the Biden Administration’s $36 billion decarbonization plan. By enabling cold chain facilities with added sustainability, resiliency, and flexibility operators of both cold storage and the electrical grid can reduce costs and GHG emissions.

Read the article or contact Viking Cold to learn more about the intense electrical load, aging infrastructure, and rapid growth rate of the refrigerated cold chain and how new technologies like Thermal Energy Storage (TES) are helping them improve refrigeration efficiencies, reduce their carbon footprint, and contribute to the growth of renewable energy sources as we enter the energy transition.

Jeof Vita, the host of the Inbound Logistics Podcast, spoke with Viking Cold President & CEO, James Bell to discuss how Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology is helping cold chain operators balance their need to be more sustainable and profitable with the amount of refrigeration required to protect their food’s quality (Episode 118).  Utilizing Viking Cold’s refrigeration optimization solutions to address the unique temperature and energy challenges of different cold storage facilities from food producers and 3PL providers to foodservice distributors and retailers is also discussed. Additionally, they cover how the unique energy storage and efficiency capabilities of TES are improving how refrigerated facilities are interacting with the electrical grid for improved sustainability and reduced operating costs.

POWER Magazine’s Associate Editor Darrell Proctor recently published an article focused on the rebuilding of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid after a number of devastating hurricanes including Hurricane Maria in 2017. “The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority has embarked on a $20 billion plan to rebuild the island’s power grid. The initiative includes a commitment to generate 40% of the island’s power from renewable resources by 2025, and 100% by 2050. C&I enterprises using distributed power generation are a large part of the effort.”

The article highlights Viking Cold as one of the leading sustainable Distributed Energy Resources (DER) delivering cost-effective, reliable, and resilient power to the island’s industrial and commercial businesses.

Isla Frio, a cold storage company on the island, is building a new 147,000 square foot facility with Viking Cold’s Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technology to add hurricane-resistant food storage capacity to the island. The second phase of the project will include the addition of onsite solar power generation. The combination of renewables with the existing TES installed during construction will maximize the cost-effectiveness of their solar-plus-storage investment and help Puerto Rico meet its aggressive goals to add resilient renewable generation to the grid.