A California company has unveiled plans to build one of the largest battery storage systems in the world near the Southern Kansas City of Pratt.
Antora Energy, already with a massive such BESS in South Dakota, announced plans to build a 5.8 gigawatt-hour, multiday thermal energy storage project.
“American industry runs on affordable, reliable energy,” said David Bierman, Antora co-founder and chief commercial officer. “Our partnership with Pratt Energy delivers it, helping meet Kansas’s rising energy demand without increasing power bills for homes or businesses. This biorefinery project is creating jobs and spurring local investment without straining the resources the community depends on.”
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a global fund manager and investor in energy infrastructure, led the project’s third-party equity financing. Australian investment firm Grok Ventures and University Pension Plan Ontario also participated in the deal reported the Hutchinson News.
“Antora has demonstrated something rare: sound technology, compelling economic fundamentals, and a clear path to repeatable deployment at scale,” said Reiner Boehning, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners spokesperson. “That gave us the conviction to partner with Antora on this project. Investments like this one provide the energy infrastructure American industry depends on, while delivering real and lasting benefits to the rural communities where these projects are built.”
Pratt Energy, a biorefinery producing ethanol for transportation fuel and co-products used for biodiesel and animal feed, will get “competitively priced, around-the-clock energy” through a long-term heat offtake agreement.
The project is expected to use little additional water beyond the existing operations and without increasing noise levels for neighboring properties, according to the announcement. The project is also expected to create more than 100 construction and operations jobs.
Antora recently is in the process of finishing a similar project, a 5 gigawatt-hour, multi-day thermal energy storage system at POET’s bioprocessing facility in Big Stone City, South Dakota. It too ranks among the world’s largest battery storage projects, delivered at the speed required to meet surging domestic energy demand.
Project Big Stone advanced from an empty lot to delivering energy in under 12 months. The landmark project, which will be completed later this year, deploys over 200 of Antora’s thermal batteries to deliver affordable, round-the-clock energy to POET—the world’s largest producer of biofuels—at their Big Stone City plant under a long-term energy offtake agreement.
