Gyre Energy Targets Industrial Cooling Costs with AI and Thermal Storage

Industrial cooling is becoming a growing focus for energy efficiency investment as cold storage operators, food distributors and data centre developers face rising electricity costs, tighter grid capacity and increasing demand for temperature-controlled services.

UK-based Gyre Energy is seeking to address these pressures through a platform that combines artificial intelligence, automated cooling controls and thermal energy storage. The company says its technology can analyse the thermal behaviour of a facility, forecast its cooling requirements and adjust equipment operation to reduce both energy use and electricity expenditure.

The approach is intended to transform refrigeration and cooling systems from largely fixed electricity loads into more flexible energy assets that can respond to power prices, grid conditions and the availability of lower-carbon electricity.

Gyre Energy was founded in 2024 by Oxford MBA graduates Dougald Coulson, Michael McKenna and Tom Gibson. In an interview with BusinessGreen, Coulson discussed the company’s development following the completion of more than $1.3 million in investment and grant funding.

The pre-seed funding was led by European venture capital firm Speedinvest, with participation from Rule 30 and Plug and Play. Gyre plans to use the capital to expand commercial deployments, develop its software and work with larger operators in cold storage, food logistics and industrial cooling.

Using Facilities as Thermal Batteries

Gyre’s platform creates a digital model, or digital twin, of a facility’s cooling system. The software monitors how factors such as outside temperatures, product loads, equipment performance and operational schedules affect the amount of cooling required.

Physics-based algorithms are then used to predict demand and determine when cooling equipment should operate. Rather than running compressors primarily in response to immediate temperature changes, the system can produce additional cooling during periods when electricity is cheaper, cleaner or more readily available.

That cooling capacity can be stored within the building, its contents, or dedicated thermal storage equipment and used later when electricity prices and grid demand are higher. The concept is similar to a battery, although energy is stored as cooling rather than electricity.

Thermal energy storage systems cool or heat a medium and release the stored thermal energy when it is required. This can reduce peak electricity consumption and allow energy demand to be shifted to periods that better match renewable generation or lower wholesale power prices.

Gyre says its combination of software and storage can be added to existing cooling systems without requiring operators to replace their core refrigeration infrastructure. This retrofit model could be important for warehouses and industrial sites where refrigeration assets are expensive, long-lived and difficult to shut down for major upgrades.

Early Deployment Reports Lower Consumption

The company’s first published commercial case study involved a 2,900-square-foot frozen storage facility operated by a UK food distributor.

According to results released by Gyre and the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, the installation reduced daily energy consumption by 35% and electricity costs by 38%. These figures come from a single early deployment and will need to be supported by results from larger facilities and a wider range of operating conditions.

Gyre is now moving into substantially larger cold chain operations. Its latest project is expected to install the platform within part of a 140,000-square-foot temperature-controlled facility operated by an undisclosed global logistics company.

The performance of the installation is expected to be assessed against an International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol baseline, providing a structured method for comparing energy performance before and after deployment.

The company says its technology is already being deployed or developed across the UK, Africa and the Caribbean, with expansion planned in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

Cooling Demand Creates a Growing Grid Challenge

The commercial opportunity for more flexible cooling systems is being strengthened by rising global electricity demand.

Cooling currently accounts for about 10% of global electricity consumption, according to the International Energy Agency. Under current trends and without stronger efficiency measures, electricity demand for space cooling could more than triple by 2050.

The IEA expects air conditioning, industrial activity and data centres to remain important drivers of electricity demand growth through 2030. Higher temperatures can also create sharp seasonal peaks in power consumption, increasing pressure on grids at times when refrigeration and cooling services are most critical.

For cold storage businesses, refrigeration can represent one of the largest components of operational energy use. Moving some of that load away from peak periods could lower electricity bills, reduce exposure to variable tariffs and help facilities operate within grid connection limits.

Flexible cooling could also support demand response programmes. Where electricity markets provide suitable incentives, groups of facilities could reduce or reschedule consumption when the grid is under stress. This could create additional revenue opportunities, although the financial value will depend on local electricity market rules, tariff structures and access to flexibility markets.

Potential Applications Beyond Cold Storage

Gyre’s initial commercial focus is on cold stores, food logistics and grocery operations, where temperatures must remain within strict limits and refrigeration systems operate continuously.

However, the company also identifies data centres as a potential future market. The expansion of cloud computing and artificial intelligence is increasing both computing electricity demand and the amount of heat that data centre cooling systems must manage.

Applying predictive controls and thermal storage could allow some cooling demand to be shifted without compromising equipment temperatures or operational reliability. However, data centres have particularly demanding uptime and temperature requirements, meaning any system would require extensive testing and integration with existing building and equipment controls.

For industrial operators, the main question will be whether the savings demonstrated in early projects can be repeated across different climates, building designs, refrigeration technologies and electricity markets.

Gyre’s larger deployments should provide further evidence on those issues. If the platform can consistently reduce consumption while maintaining temperature and product safety requirements, it could offer operators a relatively low-disruption route to lowering energy costs and emissions.

More broadly, the company’s development illustrates how industrial decarbonization may increasingly depend not only on replacing energy equipment, but also on using software, forecasting and storage to operate existing assets more intelligently.

Source: www.businessgreen.com