Slashing CO2Long-duration energy storage as cheap as natural gas.
Big Picture
Cheap, long-lasting storage is the key to carbon-free energy. Even as electricity from wind and solar power falls below the cost of existing fossil fuel plants, 100% renewable power will stay out of reach until we can smooth out energy supply from month to month and season to season. Today, grid-scale storage relies on lithium-ion batteries, which are too expensive and short-lived to do the job.
How it Works
Antora is building an energy storage system with a capacity cost below $10/kWh. The system stores heat in extremely cheap raw materials and converts it back to electricity with a high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic heat engine. In its first application, Antora’s system will absorb excess electricity from wind and solar plants and store it for 10-100+ hours, feeding it back to the grid when demand rises.
Unfair Advantage
Antora has demonstrated the highest-efficiency solid-state heat engine in history. This is their superpower. It will enable the deployment of energy storage so cheap that it competes with natural gas — a price point more than 10x lower than lithium-ion batteries. This will bring down the price of renewable energy with storage below the all-in cost of fossil fuel energy, and thus enable 100% carbon-free energy.
05
Gigatons of CO2e
potentially avoided by 2030
ANDREW PONEC CEO & CO-FOUNDER
Previously, Andrew founded Dragonfly Systems, a power electronics startup acquired by Sunpower.
JUSTIN BRIGGS CSO & CO-FOUNDER
Before co-founding Antora, Justin was a PhD candidate in applied physics at Stanford University.
DAVID BIERMAN CTO & CO-FOUNDER
Before co-founding Antora, David completed a PhD in mechanical engineering at MIT.
Antora Energy recently demonstrated the world’s most efficient solid state heat engine
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