In 2022, Antora Energy, a start-up in the field of long-term energy storage, received a $50 million financing co-led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and venture capitalist Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital. The investment department also participated in this investment. It is also the largest funding round in the field since EnergyNest raised $130 million for a similar concrete-based technology last April.

　　SES Power has nearly two decades of experience in the lithium battery energy storage industry. We are very interested in new technologies, potential customers or peers. So, this energy storage start-up company originated in Silicon Valley and established in 2018, why? Can it be favored by many investors?

　　A: The development background of Antora Energy

　　Antora Energy was founded by three young people from MIT and Stanford University, Andrew Ponec, Justin Briggs, and David Bierma, with the goal of using low-cost high-temperature thermal energy storage (solid carbon blocks) and high-efficiency TPVs (Thermophotovoltaic) To solve the intermittent challenges of wind and solar energy to the grid, while solving the cost economy of traditional energy storage.

　　Soon after the company was established, it was funded by the US Energy Agency ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency -Energy) in August 2018, and became the first batch of GameChanger Accelerators supported by the US National Renewable Laboratory NREL. E, CEC (California Energy Agency), NSF (National Science Foundation) and other agencies received about $24 million in funding.

　　B. Introduction of Antora Energy's core technology

　　Antora Energy's positioning is to develop long-term energy storage to meet the problem of insufficient regulation caused by large-scale new energy access to the power grid in the future. Double the problem.

　　Therefore, the company has broken the situation in three aspects: one is heat storage medium, looking for a heat storage medium with low cost and high energy density; the second is the method of heat transfer, looking for a simple and reliable heat conduction method; the third is thermoelectric conversion, looking for feasible heat -Electrical conversion technology.

　　Through a large number of market research, technical analysis and demonstration, the technical solution shown in the figure below is finally adopted. The heat storage medium adopts carbon block, the heat transfer method adopts light radiation, and the power generation method adopts photothermal power generation.

　　C. cheap solid carbon block

　　Compared with other thermal energy storage products, Antora Energy uses solid carbon blocks as the thermal storage medium, which has the advantages of low cost, sufficient supply of raw materials, extremely high energy density, and high thermal conductivity.

　　D. Efficient and reliable light radiation

　　Temperatures up to 1500 degrees Celsius can be raised to 1500 degrees Celsius with low cost and high reliability using high-intensity aggregated light.

　　E. Independent research and development of high-efficiency CSP technology

　　By recycling the low-energy light source multiple times as shown in the figure below, the thermoelectric conversion efficiency reaches 40% (currently the highest conversion efficiency in the world in this field).

　　In addition, due to the high energy density and compact design of TPV panels, the area of TPV is much smaller than that of traditional photovoltaic panels.

　　F. Introduction of product application

　　At present, Antora Energy's 500 kWh prototype is in the commissioning stage and has completed 1,000 hours of successful running tests. The first demonstration projects will be completed and put into production in Fresno, California in 2022.

　　G. Strengths and weaknesses of Antora Energy

　　Advantages: Antora Energy can significantly reduce the cost of products through low-cost solid carbon block heat storage and solar thermal power generation.

　　Disadvantages: Compared with other energy storage technologies, the thermoelectric efficiency still has a certain gap, and it is not economically feasible to simply use it for power supply and grid energy storage. The product application scenarios need to be further explored, which can be explored in combination with scenarios such as cogeneration of industrial parks.

　　H. Future Outlook

　　With the increasing scale of global new energy, the role of long-term energy storage will become increasingly prominent, and the market demand for long-term energy storage represented by thermal energy storage, physical energy storage and other forms of electrochemical energy storage will also usher in an explosion type of growth. However, a lot of work still needs to be done on the technical route, technical feasibility, technical and economic cost and market positioning of long-term energy storage.

　　Countries around the world are carrying out rapid technological advancement for long-term energy storage technology. The plans and so on are all in full swing to carry out technology research and development and commercial deployment, and the number of various technologies is endless.

　　Recently, with the rapid development of new energy, the energy storage market is in full swing, but except for electrochemical energy storage, compressed air energy storage and flywheel energy storage, other forms of energy storage are developing slowly. SES Power adopts a standardized, integrated and modular route for lithium-ion energy storage systems, which will help the deployment of lithium-ion energy storage systems to be simpler, more comprehensive in monitoring, and more cost-effective. For example, we use 12V200Ah, 12V300Ah, 48V100Ah, 60V100Ah, 120V300Ah energy storage system modules of EVE, CATL, BYD square aluminum lithium iron phosphate batteries, almost all of these products are standardized and modular, and they all integrate RS485, CAN, etc. The communication protocol supports remote monitoring and operation, which can ensure the system compatibility, high speed and reliability.