Nostromo Energy Invited by the Department of Energy to Due Diligence and Term Sheet Negotiations for the IceBrick® Energy Storage Project

If approved, Nostromo will deploy its IceBrick systems in up to 120 buildings in California and other U.S. states

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nostromo Energy. (TASE: NOST), provider of the IceBrick® system, a virtual power plant (VPP)-enabled distributed thermal energy storage solution for commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings, announced today that it has been invited by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) to begin the due diligence and term sheet negotiations process of Nostromo's application for up to $176 million loan guarantee under the Title 17 Clean Energy Loan Guarantee Program. The invitation follows the LPO's review of Nostromo's part II application and its determination that the project is highly qualified and suitable for a loan guarantee under this program.

In the proposed project, Nostromo will install its novel IceBrick system in up to 120 buildings (with a total energy storage capacity equivalent to 100/275 MW/MWh), which will reduce the buildings' energy costs and a total of 40,000 Tons of carbon emissions annually, while enabling the integration of more renewables and providing demand flexibility and resilience to the power grid. The systems will be placed in a service model (aka, "energy storage-as-a-service", or ESaaS), where, instead of purchasing the system, the host-building will pay a periodic service fee based on ongoing energy cost savings generated by the system. Nostromo will manage the IceBrick fleet through its cloud-based platform, which will enable grid-integration as a virtual power plant (VPP). Nostromo is also in the process of securing Resource Adequacy (RA) credits for IceBrick systems it expects to place in 2024, in order to sell capacity services through the wholesale market to utilities and community choice aggregators.

"We are excited to move to the next phase in the loan guarantee process. If approved, it will significantly accelerate commercial deployment of the IceBrick technology, which addresses a critical need for safe, efficient, large-scale energy storage solution for the existing building stock", said Yoram Ashery, CEO of Nostromo Energy. "This important milestone is also very timely, as we are seeing growing interest in the program following implementation of our first US system and the upcoming opening of the IceBrick Innovation Center, in Beverly Hills."

In June, Nostromo announced completion of the IceBrick system serving the Beverly Hilton and the Waldorf Astoria hotels in Beverly Hills. The system will provide the two hotels with cooling energy at less than half of its current cost and reduce their scope 2 carbon emissions by 150-200 metric tons, annually.

DOE Loan Guarantee Process

The Title XVII Innovative Clean Energy Loan Guarantee Program provides loan guarantees to a variety of energy projects. The loan guarantee application consists of two parts: Part I, for determination by the DOE whether the project satisfies certain technical eligibility requirements, and if so, an invitation for the applicant to submit a Part II application. If, upon review of the Part II application, the DOE determines that the proposed project is highly qualified and suitable for a loan guarantee, it invites the applicant into due diligence and term sheet negotiation.

Following review of Nostromo's Part II application, the DOE invited Nostromo to enter into the due diligence and term sheet negotiations process. The DOE's invitation is not an assurance that the DOE will offer a term sheet to Nostromo, or that the terms and conditions of a term sheet will be consistent with terms proposed by Nostromo. The foregoing matters are wholly dependent on the results of DOE advanced due diligence and DOE's determination whether to proceed.

About Nostromo

Nostromo Energy's ice-based energy storage solution is redefining energy storage for commercial and industrial buildings. The Nostromo IceBrick^® system uses ice to store energy when electricity prices are low, renewable energy is abundant and the grid has excess capacity, and discharges the stored energy to avoid peak prices, emissions from gas-peaker plants and grid congestion during peak time. In this way, Nostromo provides demand flexibility to pave the way for carbon-free, resilient power grid, using a safe, clean and financially beneficial system to building owners that can be easily retrofitted to any existing commercial and industrial buildings. To learn more about Nostromo, visit www.nostromo.energy.

Media Contact:
GKPR for Nostromo
Chaya Zabihi
[email protected]

SOURCE Nostromo