Sunnyvale Pilot Powers New Wind Storage Tech

Antora Energy is building a two-part manufacturing footprint in Silicon Valley around a thermal battery designed to turn intermittent renewable electricity into industrial heat and, when needed, electricity. The Sunnyvale company said in January 2023 that it had built the world’s first dedicated manufacturing line for thermophotovoltaic, or TPV, cells at its headquarters, with an initial annual capacity of 2 megawatts of cells. The California Energy Commission later approved a $2,999,695 grant to expand that pilot-scale Sunnyvale line, describing the cells as a component of a long-duration storage system capable of providing 200 hours of capacity. ### Why does the Sunnyvale line matter if Antora already has a battery factory? Sunnyvale is where Antora makes the semiconductor device that converts heat back into electricity. Antora said the TPV line sits at its Sunnyvale headquarters and produces the cells used as the discharge component in future thermal battery products. The company said those cells have demonstrated heat-to-electricity efficiency above 40%, which it described as an industry benchmark. (antora.com) San Jose is where Antora plans to assemble the larger battery modules that store energy as heat in solid carbon blocks. Antora said in October 2023 that its 50,000-square-foot San Jose plant would produce modular thermal batteries containing the carbon blocks, insulation, enclosures, and charging and discharging equipment, with initial units expected to roll off the line in 2024. ### How does the battery actually store wind or solar power? Antora and the U.S. (antora.com) Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program describe the system as a heat battery charged by low-cost renewable electricity, including wind and solar. The battery stores that electricity as heat in blocks of solid carbon until the blocks reach very high temperatures, then delivers the stored energy either directly as industrial heat or through TPV cells as electricity. (antora.com) ARPA-E said in April 2024 that Antora’s TPV technology converts light emitted by the glowing carbon blocks into electricity customers can use on demand. Antora said the same architecture is intended to supply zero-emissions heat and power for industrial processes that now rely on fossil fuels. ### What has California funded at the Sunnyvale site? The California Energy Commission approved the Antora grant on August 9, 2023, under agreement EPC-23-010. (antora.com) The agency said the money would expand Antora’s pilot-scale manufacturing line in Sunnyvale for TPV cells that convert radiant heat into electricity. The grant paperwork lists the project title as “Manufacturability of Low-Cost InGaAs Thermophotovoltaic Devices” and gives a term running from August 23, 2023, to July 31, 2026. (arpa-e.energy.gov) A separate California Energy Commission final project report published in February 2024 said state support enabled Antora’s TPV team to establish its fabrication facility. The report names Antora personnel including Brendan Kayes and Andrew Ponec among the authors and says the project focused on manufacturing scale-up of the company’s solid-state heat engine technology. ### Who is backing the broader commercialization push? (energy.ca.gov) ARPA-E said Antora announced a $150 million Series B funding round on February 22, 2024, led by Decarbonization Partners. The agency also said Antora was part of a team selected in March 2024 to receive up to $215.6 million through the Department of Energy’s industrial decarbonization program to accelerate commercial-scale demonstration. (energy.ca.gov) Andrew Ponec, Antora’s co-founder and chief executive, said in the company’s 2023 factory announcement that the San Jose site would support the first major commercial projects and that the company planned additional, larger manufacturing sites in coming years. In the earlier Sunnyvale announcement, Ponec said Antora had spent several years turning world-record TPV prototypes into manufacturable products on commercial equipment. ### What comes next in Sunnyvale and San Jose? (arpa-e.energy.gov) July 31, 2026, is the scheduled end date in the California Energy Commission agreement funding the Sunnyvale TPV manufacturing expansion. Antora has said the San Jose factory was intended to supply its first major commercial projects and that it plans additional, larger manufacturing sites after the initial production phase. (energy.ca.gov) (antora.com)