Source: Green Technology
Companies selling batteries of any sort to businesses grapple with the fact that they’re expensive, take up valuable space and tend to require a painful and lengthy sales cycle. Those downsides can get in the way of the appeal, which is to save companies loads of money on their electricity bills by dodging peaks and demand charges. As such, several commercial battery vendors have shifted their business models , but none quite like Axiom Exergy. The Bay Area startup launched in 2014 with the thesis that lithium-ion batteries made little sense for businesses with high thermal loads, like grocery stores, and that thermal storage could optimize cooling and slash bills for considerably less upfront investment. The company got a few initial “refrigeration batteries” into stores, including Whole Foods and Walmart. Along the way, it built a software platform that tapped into existing refrigeration systems’ data collection in order to predict upcoming peaks and front-load cooling sessions accordingly.
Leave a Reply