Jan 4, 2023   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Nostromo Energy Reaches Key Application Milestone for $189 Million Loan Guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to Deploy 275 MWh of Distributed Energy Storage Systems

Nostromo Energy, Inc., provider of the IceBrick® system, a breakthrough energy storage solution to decarbonize commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings and the power grid, today announced that it has been invited by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) to submit a Part II application for a loan guarantee under the Title XVII Innovative Clean Energy Loan Guarantee Program. The proposed $189 million loan guarantee from the DOE would support Nostromo’s “energy storage-as-a-service” (ESaaS) offering, designed to accelerate the deployment of its large-scale, behind-the-meter, modular and highly-efficient cold energy storage technology. The invitation to submit a Part II application means that the LPO determined, based on information submitted, that Nostromo’s proposed project employs innovative technology, is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meets the applicable Part I technical eligibility requirements.

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Photo credit: Nostromo Energy

Photo credit: Nostromo Energy

If approved, this $189 million loan guarantee would help finance the installation of Nostromo’s energy storage system in up to 120 C&I buildings in California and other U.S. states, with an aggregated capacity of 100 MW/275 MWh, create hundreds of U.S. jobs and significantly reduce GHG emissions from energy use by these buildings. The IceBrick® systems will be centrally managed by Nostromo’s Cirrus™ cloud-based management system, and operate as a virtual power plant to provide demand flexibility to the local power grid. The loan guarantee is subject to completion of an equity capital raise for an amount yet to be determined.

Concurrently, Nostromo appointed investment bank Independence Point Securities as an exclusive advisor for raising the equity capital for the project.

“If the application successfully proceeds to a loan guarantee, the DOE’s and LPO’s support will help us accelerate commercial deployment of our novel energy storage technology for behind-the-meter installation, which is critical for both balancing and decarbonizing the power grid,” said Yoram Ashery, CEO at Nostromo Energy. “We’re looking forward to working with Independence Point to quickly finalize the equity financing component of the project, so we can begin catalyzing the much needed decarbonization of the existing building stock.”

Buildings overall account for 74 percent of all electricity consumption. However, C&I buildings have fallen significantly behind other energy storage segments, accounting in California for only 1 percent of total new storage capacity in 2021, compared to 93 percent in front of the meter (utility scale) and 6 percent in residential homes. Nostromo’s safe, ice-based energy storage system is uniquely positioned for rapid deployment in the C&I sector, who’s cooling energy demands accounts for approximately half of a building’s energy use and more than a third of the total potential for load shifting by behind-the-meter storage on the entire power grid. This results in lowering the building’s energy costs and carbon emissions, enabling more EV charging capacity and providing resilience during extreme weather.

DOE Loan Guarantee

To date, LPO’s Title XVII Innovative Clean Energy Loan Guarantee Program has provided more than $35 billion in loan guarantees to a variety of energy projects. The loan guarantee application consists of two parts: in the Part I application, the applicant provides information to LPO so they can determine whether the project satisfies Part I technical eligibility requirements. If the project satisfies the technical eligibility requirements, then LPO invites the applicant to submit a Part II application. DOE’s invitation to submit a Part II application is not an assurance that DOE will invite an applicant into the due diligence and term sheet negotiation process, that DOE will offer a term sheet to an applicant, that DOE will issue a loan guarantee, or that the terms and conditions of a loan guarantee will be consistent with terms proposed by an applicant. The foregoing matters are wholly dependent on the results of DOE review and evaluation of a Part II Application, and DOE’s determination whether to proceed.

About Nostromo Energy

Nostromo Energy provides a sustainable energy storage solution for commercial and industrial buildings that enables measurable reduction of carbon emissions and energy costs and increases resilience for the building and grid. Nostromo’s clean, safe and highly efficient IceBrick™ solution transforms how buildings manage their main use of energy, which is cooling. This solution stores energy during off-peak or surplus solar energy hours, when electricity’s cost and carbon emission are low, so it can be used for cooling during peak demand hours, when electricity’s cost and carbon emissions are high. Founded in 2017, Nostromo is publicly listed in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. To learn more about Nostromo, visit www.nostromo.energy.