Electrified Thermal Solutions’ first commercial-scale Joule Hive Thermal Battery has been installed at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, where it will charge with AC electricity from the grid and store 20 MWh of heat at up to 1,800°C (3,275°F). The heat is supplied on-demand as hot gas to industrial kilns, furnaces and boilers, with hot gas temperatures adjustable to 1,500°C (2,730°F). The hot gas supply can be increased to an unmatched delivery temperature of 1,800°C specifically for cement, steel, glass and chemical production.
The Joule Hive Thermal Battery achieves substantially lower capital and operating costs by leveraging electrically conductive firebricks designed to last 20-plus years and charging when electricity rates are lowest.
By leveraging low-cost renewable electricity, the Joule Hive Thermal Battery unlocks a cost-competitive heating alternative to natural gas and other fossil fuels. The SwRI unit draws directly from 13.2 kV AC power, providing configurability to the typical line voltage of industrial campuses globally, and significantly reducing the balance of plant costs associated with other electric heating systems such as stepdown transformers. The modular commercial-scale system can serve customer loads in the 1- to 5-MW thermal demand range with additional modules enabling unlimited scaling to meet customer requirements.
Principally derived from fossil fuels, industrial heat accounts for approximately one-fifth of global energy consumption. Throughout much of the United States and Europe, electricity prices are negative for significant portions of the year, and the trend toward decreasing electricity pricing during off-peak hours continues to accelerate. With Electrified Thermal’s Joule Hive thermal battery, industries can now access inexpensive, clean electricity directly from the grid and win head-to-head with fossil fuels on price for their heating needs, unlocking cost savings while supporting grid flexibility.
“Industry has long been looking for a way to manage the rising costs and volatility of energy,” said Electrified Thermal Solutions Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Stack. “With the Joule Hive Thermal Battery, manufacturers can now use process heat at even the highest temperature levels derived from the lowest-cost electricity available. By charging when electricity is cheapest and delivering heat on demand, the Joule Hive gives customers far more control over their energy costs. This fundamentally changes the economics of industrial heat.”
Electrified Thermal Systems has secured letters of intent with customers across multiple industries and is targeting 2 gigawatts (GW) of thermal power capacity deployment by 2030. The SwRI system startup positions the company for 2026 commercial deployments with industrial partners.
Electrified Thermal Solutions, www.electrifiedthermal.com
