Axiom Exergy Raises $2.5M For Thermal Energy Storage
Monday August 8, 2016
A niche application for supermarket energy savings gains commercial footing.
Axiom Exergy has raised $2.5 million in funding round to bring its refrigeration battery to supermarket customers in key markets.
Investors include Element 8 Fund, Victory Capital, the MIT Angels, Propel(x) angels, the Sierra Angels, Tesla CTO JB Straubel and other undisclosed investors.Â
The financing comes as the young company has finished building its first full-scale system and is getting its first commercial project in the ground. The money will be used to support $5 million in signed contracts.
Axiom's technology is long-scale thermal energy storage that leverages existing refrigeration and does not require any retrofits to the systems themselves. Axiom's energy storage system takes the extra capacity from the refrigerator to freeze a tank of salt water overnight. The basis of the technology is similar to what Ice Energy does with air conditioning.
The Axiom refrigeration battery has three main components. The first is a system integrator that plugs into the central refrigeration system, like a new display case would. There is also a large thermal storage tank with the salt water stored outside or even underground. It is about half the size of a shipping container. The third component is cloud-based software and a dashboard.
During afternoon electricity peaks, the refrigeration battery uses the frozen salt water to provide refrigeration to the store's units, which reduces or eliminates the need for compressors or condensers.
The sweet spot for Axiom is the medium-sized supermarket of about 20,000 to 60,000 square feet, says Amrit Robbins, CEO of Axiom Exergy. We're at the early stages of building relationships with customers.â€
So far, it's a relatively easy sell, and the startup says it has more interest than it can meet. Energy spend is the third-largest line item for most grocery stores and margins are razor thin, usually less than 2 percent.
The Axiom Exergy team has deftly reimagined what it means to supply energy storage by developing a robust, cost-effective solution specifically for markets where saving energ...