Rondo Energy lands $60M for its heat battery technology

In California, Rondo Energy, a leading provider of zero-carbon industrial heat and power, has raised $60 million in a new financing planned to speed the rollout of Rondo Heat Batteries (RHBs) worldwide and to transform the global energy storage market. 

The financing brings together funding from current Rondo investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, SCG, and TITAN, industrial leaders including Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Rio Tinto, SABIC, Aramco Ventures, and climate investors SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (SEEIT) and John Doerr. Rondo will use this funding to grow its international operations and to develop and build storage projects around the world. 

Rio Tinto, Aramco Ventures, SABIC, SCG, TITAN, and SEEIT have joined Rondo’s Strategic Investor Advisory Board (SIAB). 

Declining wind and solar power costs are now becoming cheaper than the fuel industry burns for heat. The Rondo Heat Battery turns these intermittent power sources into the continuous, high temperature clean heat that industry requires, and opens the door to industrial decarbonization at a fraction of the cost of other technologies.

In 2023, Rondo began operations of its first commercial unit, lowering the carbon intensity of biofuel produced by Calgren Renewable Fuels. This project was the first commercially operating electric thermal energy storage system in the US, and the highest efficiency, highest temperature energy storage of any kind worldwide.

In 2023 Rondo, in partnership with Siam Cement Group (SCG), announced current Heat Battery storage production capacity of 2.4GWh/year, with plans to reach 90GWh/year.