Rondo Energy is turning clean power into high-temperature heat by capturing electricity from solar and wind and storing it in the Rondo Heat Battery (RHB). The Oakland, CA-based company recently announced the commercial availability of two models of its latest innovation.
Each battery stores clean energy in brick materials and can deliver zero-carbon high-temperature heat used in the production of steel and cement, chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, mining, and food processing. They are a breakthrough for low-cost, zero-emission, reliable industrial heat and power applications.
The company is backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures in a partnership with Energy Impact Partners.
It believes that replacing traditional industrial heat with RHBs can eliminate five times more carbon in California than all of the current electric vehicles on the road in the U.S. That’s more than 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. That kind of carbon impact is game-changing for numerous companies, all eager to look for solutions to meet net-zero carbon emissions goals.
“Rondo batteries could prove critical to eliminating emissions, and their commercial availability will help companies turn to its zero carbon heat for their processes,” said Carmichael Roberts, who co-leads the investment committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “The Rondo Heat Battery will help companies in industries such as cement, fuels, food, and water desalination to begin leveraging the falling costs of renewables without modifying their facilities.”
Both Rondo Heat batteries — the RHB100 and RHB300 — are made of only brick and iron and can fully charge in just four hours. They store heat energy at temperatures up to 1500 degrees Celsius.
The batteries, which look like super-sized bricks, are essentially a drop-in-place replacement for traditional fossil fuel boilers.
They deliver on-demand power 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to buildings, plants, and factories.
The RHBs have been tested as safe, reliable, and simple to install, costing almost nothing to operate. They can run for as long as 40 years without maintenance. Overall, this type of clean energy helps stabilize and secure the power grid for all users.
“Rondo’s mission is simple: lower cost heat and energy for large industrial processes,” said Jeremy Keller, Rondo Energy’s senior vice president. “We’ve been excited by the work now underway with key customers.
”We’re finding that deep emission reductions are now both practical and affordable for many of the world’s most energy-intensive facilities,” he said. “Our studies of customer facilities are showing 50% to 90% reductions in emissions and reductions in operating costs of 30% or more.”
