Cutting CO2 emissions thanks to ice storage: a Chinese example

Ice storage could help in minimizing the CO2 emissions of the electricity sector in China
A paper (1) by Y. Fan and W. Long presented at ICR2011 in Prague shows how ice storage could help to minimize the CO2 emissions of the electricity sector in China, where the use of air conditioning has more than doubled over the last 10 years.
Ice storage systems make it possible to store the cooling capacity by making ice during low-demand periods and release it during peak hours. In late 2006, there were 510 ice storage systems in China, distributed among 4 municipalities and 18 provinces.
Fan and Long demonstrate that in 2007 in North China, 1% variations in the load factor of power grid induced variations in coal consumption for power supply amounted to 4.524 g/kWh. Thanks to the utilization of ice-storage systems, the Northern China power grid achieves CO2 emissions reductions of up to 11 804 tonnes. Given that the total ice-storage capacity during cooling periods is 22 708 400 kWh, the CO2 emissions reduction per kWh of total ice storage capacity is 0.520 kg/kWh.

(1) Positive externalities of ice storage systems: carbon dioxide emissions reduction, Y. Fan, W. Long.