Antora Energy Awarded $4M+ to Advance Heat-to-Power Thermophotovoltaic Technology for Industrial Sector
Antora Energy, a zero-emissions industrial heat and power provider, has received over $4 million in grant funding to advance its heat-to-power thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology. Through this technology, Antora hopes to completely replace the fossil fuels used in processes for sectors such as food & beverage, paper products, chemicals, steel, and cement.
Traditionally, converting stored heat back to electricity requires conventional heat engines, like steam turbines, which have significant limitations around cost, efficiency, complexity, and scalability. With Antora’s thermal battery, renewable energy is stored as heat in blocks of solid carbon, which outputs high-temperature industrial heat and electricity on demand at costs competitive with fossil fuels.
The TPV technology effectively enables the conversion of heat into power with high efficiency, rapid ramp rate, low cost, and no moving parts, unlocking the dual heat and power output needed to replace fossil fuels in the C&I sectors.
Historically, TPV technology has met neither the efficiency threshold required to compete with traditional heat engines nor the manufacturability threshold required to produce the technology at scale in a cost-effective manner. Antora has met both thresholds, demonstrating heat-to-electricity conversion efficiencies greater than 40%.
“This additional funding will further accelerate our production of TPV and continue to strengthen Antora's position as the industry leader in TPV technology,” said Andrew Ponec, Co-Founder and CEO of Antora Energy. “With TPV, Antora is capable of decarbonizing the entire energy demand of large industrial facilities—both heat and power—opening the fastest, least expensive path for the industrial sector to reach net zero.”
Antora’s grant funding was provided by the California Energy Commission (CEC) through the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program and the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) through the Duration Addition to electricitY Storage (DAYS) program.
Antora’s TPV technology is important for decarbonizing industry supporting the Department of Energy’s Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap and achieving the State of California’s goal of zero-emissions energy sources for its electricity by 2045.
