Rondo Energy raises $60 million for industrial heat batteries

Rondo Energy secured $60 million to accelerate global deployment of its Rondo Heat Batteries, which convert renewable power into high-temperature industrial heat. The technology targets hard-to-decarbonise industrial heat, a quarter of global energy use, offering Indian heavy industry a potential low-cost decarbonisation pathway.

Rondo Energy raised $60 million to accelerate global deployment of Rondo Heat Batteries (RHBs), which convert intermittent renewable power into continuous high-temperature clean heat. Industrial high-temperature heat accounts for a quarter of the world's energy consumption and carbon emissions. In 2023, Rondo launched its first commercial unit, cutting the carbon intensity of Calgren Renewable Fuels' biofuel, the first operational electric thermal energy storage system in the US. With Siam Cement Group, Rondo reported 2.4 GWh annual production capacity, targeting 90 GWh per year.

Energy-intensive manufacturers, from steel to food production, are directly affected, as the batteries enable industrial decarbonisation at lower cost than green hydrogen or chemical batteries, storing energy at half the cost. The US Industrial Heat Shot Initiative targets an 85% reduction in industrial heat emissions. Investors in the round include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, SCG, TITAN, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, Rio Tinto, SABIC, Aramco Ventures, SEEIT, and John Doerr, several joining a Strategic Investor Advisory Board.

Indian cement, steel, and process-heat industries should monitor Rondo's global project deployment, as the funds support construction of storage projects worldwide. Affected manufacturers can evaluate heat-battery storage, which uses long-established brick and iron-wire materials to avoid safety and supply-chain risks of other technologies. With industrial heat electrification projected as a trillion-dollar market and decarbonised demand expected to require twice as much heat-battery as grid-battery storage, heavy industry should assess this decarbonisation option.

Key figure — Funding raised: $60 million for global heat-battery deployment