Antora’s hot carbon thermal batteries win 5 GWh energy storage project in US

Antora Energy has commissioned its 5 GWh thermal energy storage system at US biofuels giant POET’s Big Stone City bioprocessing facility in South Dakota, US.

The 50 MW / 5 GWh facility some 180 miles / 300 kilometers west of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was constructed in around a year, and serves as one of the largest energy storage installations globally.

Australian private investment and venture capital firm founded by Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, Grok Ventures provided project-level financing as the sole external investor the thermal energy storage system (TES). Grok’s investment enabled the project to reach financial close and be commissioned.

The system will provide POET with 50 MW of competively priced, around-the-clock energy under a long term heat offtake agreement, enabling the plant to increase its bioethanol production.

Antora co-founder and CEO Andrew Ponec said: “With this project, Antora is delivering affordable energy to POET – fast. We are proud of what this deployment means for the workers who designed, built and installed these batteries, and more broadly, for American manufacturing.”

Grok Ventures infrastructure and private equity head Ridhaa Ahmed said Antora has built something genuinely compelling.

“Our conviction in the technology, the team, and the commercial fundamentals gave us the confidence to structure a financing solution befitting the project’s transformative nature,” Ahmed said.

“The commercial logic is strong, the opportunity consequential, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Antora as they scale this technology across America and the world.”

The project selectively and rapidly charges during periods of surplus local energy production, making use of existing grid infrastructure, offering a model to integrated thermal energy storage.