Antora’s thermal battery stores energy in carbon blocks to heat and power industry without emissions.

Innovation

Antora Energy developed a revolutionary way to decarbonize heavy industry using thermal batteries that are 3x more energy dense than lithium-ion batteries.

Antora's battery stores energy in a stack of commercially available carbon blocks in an insulated box. These blocks are heated until they glow like a toaster. Then customers have on-demand access to either the blocks’ heat for industrial processes or power from thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells inside the battery’s shell that convert the blocks’ light into electricity.

Solid carbon can withstand extremely high temperatures, meaning Antora’s carbon block-based batteries can supply heat at temperatures high enough to calcinate limestone or melt steel.

Traditionally, fossil fuels have been the cheapest way to power industry, making it the largest greenhouse gas-emitting sector in the country. With Antora’s batteries, factories could run on low-cost renewable energy 24/7 without relying on cost-prohibitive, critical material intensive lithium-ion batteries.

Antora's battery is 3x energy dense compared to lithium-ion batteries.

Impact

Antora’s first commercial-scale thermal battery at Wellhead Electric Company in Fresno, California reached the highest temperature achieved to date for a thermal battery at full scale–1,800°C.

The battery could supply heat for industries such as cement, lime, glass, food and beverage, chemical, and steel. Manufacturing will kick off in 2024, and large-scale deployment of Antora’s batteries will begin in 2025.

Funding

Antora’s project has received $7.9 million in ARPA-E support and the company has raised a total of $230 million in funding from Decarbonization Partners, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and other investors.

ARPA-E Partnership

Antora was selected as one of ARPA-E’s DAYS program awardees in 2019, just one year after Antora’s founding. The company’s three-person team was working out of a trailer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the time.

During DAYS, Antora’s TPV cells achieved 40% energy efficiency, exceeding the 30% industry benchmark. The company now holds the world’s largest production line of TPV cells.

If it works, will it matter?

Last updated 2/22/2024