LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ice Energy today announced Mike Hopkins as president of the company, the leading provider of distributed thermal energy storage technology. Hopkins previously served as the company’s executive vice president of corporate development and legal and played a key role in engaging with utilities across the country and internationally.
“Ice Energy is poised to become a very significant force in the energy space with tremendous interest throughout the industry. To prepare for the growth, the board has asked Mike Hopkins to assume the role of president and lead our efforts in branding, marketing, IT, finance, contract and partner negotiations, as well as investor relations,” said James Kelly, Ice Energy director and former senior vice president of transmission and distribution for Southern California Edison. “Mike is an experienced and proven leader with just the right skills for the job. Visionary CEO Dave Prezioso will continue to focus on R&D, development of upcoming new product lines and operations. This talented and dedicated pair will help us accelerate Ice’s growth and prominence in the marketplace.”
Hopkins joined Ice Energy in 2009 after co-founding a geospatial information services company and serving as partner during an 18-year career with Bennett Jones LLP, a Canadian law firm and global leader in energy and climate change. While practicing law, his specialty was developing and financing oil and gas fields and power projects. Hopkins also served on the firm’s executive committee, leading the utilities, international and independent power groups.
The company’s key product, the Ice Bear, attaches to a standard 5-ton commercial AC unit. The Ice Bear freezes ice at night when demand for power is low and capacity is abundant. Then during the day, stored ice is used to provide cooling, instead of the power-intensive AC compressor. Ice Bears are deployed in smart-grid-enabled, megawatt-scale fleets, and each Ice Bear can reduce harmful CO2 emissions by about 10 tons per year.
Ice Energy recently passed the 20 million operating-hour mark for its fleet of Ice Bear thermal energy storage units. Almost 1,000 units are currently installed in more than 40 different utility service territories nationwide.
About Ice Energy
Ice Energy delivers cost-effective, reliable and highly efficient distributed energy storage and smart-grid solutions to utilities using direct-expansion AC technology. Energy is stored at night in the form of ice when electricity generation is generally cleaner, more efficient and less expensive. During the peak of the day, the company’s flagship Ice Bear product uses the ice rather than the AC unit’s compressor to cool hot refrigerant, providing much-needed energy storage to utilities and in regions such as California, saving tons of harmful CO2 emissions per year, per Ice Bear. Almost 1,000 units have been deployed nationwide by utilities and businesses, as well as specialty installs at locations such as wineries and zoos. The company’s smart-grid platform integrates distributed energy storage technology with an advanced software infrastructure and intelligent two-way control to provide utilities with a fully dispatchable grid asset that can be rapidly deployed at any scale. To learn more about Ice Energy, please visit www.ice-energy.com.
