(Credit: Antora)
POET, a producer of biofuels, and Antora Energy, a U.S. energy storage company, announced the commissioning of Antora’s 5 gigawatt-hour, multi-day thermal energy storage system at POET’s Big Stone City, South Dakota bioprocessing facility.
The project advanced from initial construction to delivering energy in under 12 months, and is expected to be fully operational later this year. Upon completion, it will sit among the world’s largest energy storage projects by capacity.
Antora’s system provides POET with around-the-clock energy under a long-term heat offtake agreement, enabling the plant to increase bioethanol production. Antora’s thermal batteries store excess energy from wind turbines as heat in insulated blocks of solid carbon. This heat is then delivered to drive industrial processes or is converted into electricity.
“With this project, Antora is delivering affordable energy to POET—fast,” said Andrew Ponec, Co-Founder and CEO of Antora Energy. “We’re proud of what this deployment means for the workers who designed, built, and installed these batteries, and more broadly, for American manufacturing. This is what reindustrialization looks like—American innovation driving industrial competitiveness, domestic supply chains spanning a dozen states, and jobs from the factory floor to the construction site. And it’s all delivered at the speed required to meet soaring domestic energy demand.”
Antora worked with Otter Tail Power — a utility that provides power to customers across South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota — to develop an electric rate that enables the system to deliver 24/7 thermal energy without increasing costs for other consumers. Approved by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission last year, the rate allows the system to selectively and rapidly charge during periods of surplus local energy production.
“America’s need for energy is continuing to rise year after year. The more of that energy we can make right here at home, the better,” said Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD). “POET and Antora’s project in Big Stone City will have a real economic impact in South Dakota while also creating jobs and boosting our domestic energy production.”
Ref: https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/energy-storage/a-huge-5-gwh-thermal-energy-storage-system-is-now-delivering-power-to-a-south-dakota-biofuels-facility/
