Antora and Pratt Energy to Build 5.8 Gigawatt-Hour Thermal Battery in Kansas
Antora Energy and Pratt Energy announced a 5.8 GWh thermal battery project at a Kansas biorefinery on October 1, 2026, creating over 100 jobs.
Photo by Nothing Ahead on Pexels
Antora Energy and Pratt Energy announced on October 1, 2026 a thermal battery project at Pratt Energy’s biorefinery in Pratt, Kansas, with a capacity of 5.8 gigawatt-hours, according to a joint press release carried by BusinessWire. The project is one of the largest thermal battery deployments disclosed to date for this type of industrial site and is expected to begin operating in 2027, the companies said.
What the thermal battery project Kansas plant will use
Antora’s thermal battery stores low-cost electricity as heat in solid carbon blocks, which can later release that heat for industrial processes or convert it back into electricity as needed, the company has previously described its technology. Pratt Energy has operated the Kansas biorefinery since 2013, producing ethanol and co-products from corn and sorghum, a process that requires a steady supply of industrial heat. The companies did not disclose the project’s dollar cost in the October 1 release.
Financing for the project is led by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, with additional backing from Grok Ventures and University Pension Plan Ontario, according to the release. Antora co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer David Bierman said the partnership “delivers” affordable, reliable energy that “American industry runs on,” tying the project to the companies’ framing of thermal batteries as a way to cut industrial energy costs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels for process heat.
| Antora-Pratt Energy thermal battery project, announced October 1, 2026 | Figure |
|---|---|
| Thermal storage capacity | 5.8 GWh |
| Location | Pratt Energy biorefinery, Pratt, Kansas |
| Expected operational start | 2027 |
| Construction and operations jobs | 100+ |
| Local partnership | Pratt Community College paid internships |
| Education support | Scholarship program for up to 12 students over three years |
| Financing partners | Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Grok Ventures, University Pension Plan Ontario |
How this project fits Antora’s broader expansion
The Kansas project follows Antora’s $550 million Series C funding round, closed to scale US thermal battery manufacturing, giving the company fresh capital to move from manufacturing scale-up toward signing deployment deals with industrial energy users. Pairing a biorefinery, which needs continuous process heat, with a battery that charges on cheap off-peak electricity illustrates a deployment pattern distinct from the grid-connected battery storage projects more commonly announced in the United States, such as Eolian’s battery storage project built to serve an Ohio AI data center hub. Thermal batteries target heat-intensive industrial processes directly rather than feeding electricity back to the grid.
The project also arrives as long-duration storage developers compete for financing to reach commercial scale. Form Energy, a rival long-duration storage company, separately raised $750 million in a Series G round at a lower valuation, underscoring how capital-intensive the race to build gigawatt-hour-scale storage projects remains across different battery chemistries and heat-storage approaches.
About Antora Energy
Antora Energy is a US-based energy storage company that manufactures thermal battery systems at a factory in San Jose, California, and has previously demonstrated heat storage above 1,800 degrees Celsius in carbon blocks at a facility near Fresno, California. The company has raised capital in multiple rounds, including the $550 million Series C closed earlier in 2026, backed by investors such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital, with support from the US Department of Energy in earlier development stages. The October 1, 2026 announcement with Pratt Energy marks one of Antora’s first disclosed deployments at an existing biorefinery, extending the company’s pitch that thermal batteries can deliver affordable industrial heat without new fossil fuel combustion on site.
Sources: BusinessWire (via FinancialContent); Energy Storage News
Featured image: photo by Nothing Ahead on Pexels (free Pexels license).
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
