Rondo Energy Inc (Rondo), the manufacturer of Rondo Heat Batteries, unveiled its ambitious plan on Monday (June 26) to significantly expand the production capacity of Rondo Heat Battery storage at the Siam Cement Group (SCG) facility, aiming to reach an impressive 90GWh per year.
Rondo's pioneering heat batteries have the unique ability to store electric power as high-temperature heat within refractory bricks, eliminating the need for combustibles or critical minerals. By harnessing renewable energy sources, Rondo's battery technology provides a continuous supply of zero-carbon industrial heat, making it readily available for various industrial applications.
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CEO of Rondo, John O'Donnell, expressed his appreciation for the outstanding partnership with SCG, stating, “SCG has been a phenomenal partner. We discovered a shared vision and complementary capabilities that have allowed us to scale this technology and address one of the most pressing challenges of our time. With the technology now commercially operational, Rondo's next milestone is to establish the necessary delivery capacity to meet the increasing demands of projects worldwide.”
SCG, through its subsidiary Siam Refractory Industry Co. (SRIC), boasts advanced expertise in producing refractory bricks of superior quality and scale. By leveraging their respective technologies and capabilities, the collaboration between Rondo and SCG will result in a mass production capacity of 2.4 GWh per year, with operations already underway.
Thammasak Sethaudom, Executive Vice President of SCG, emphasized the potential of Rondo's innovative solution in reducing carbon emissions associated with industrial process heat used worldwide. Sethaudom added, “SCG can utilize Rondo's technology to reduce our own carbon footprint, while SCG Cleanergy can partner with Rondo to assist our customers in lowering their emissions. We have also recognized that our 70 years of technical expertise in the refractory business and supply chain can support Rondo's mission to decarbonize industrial process heat, and we are pleased to increase our capacity to meet market demand.”
Notably, Rondo Energy was selected as a finalist for the Storage Innovations category in the Energy Storage Innovation Prize awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity.
Currently, Rondo Energy's heat batteries are being utilized at an ethanol plant in California, where they provide industrial customers with the world's highest temperature and highest efficiency energy storage solution of its kind.