档案库 · 气候与能源 · 战略决策 · 2020–2024
Rondo押注砖块热电池取代燃气锅炉；首个装置自2023年起运行
Rondo的砖块热电池于2023年3月在Calgren投入商用；2024年Diageo、Eastman以及一笔7500万欧元的Catalyst/EIB交易紧随其后。
Rondo Energy
做的是什么生意
Rondo Energy sells zero-carbon industrial heat: electric toaster-style elements heat refractory bricks past 1,000°C, and the stored heat becomes steam for ethanol plants, distilleries, chemical plants and cement kilns.
启动资金：About $85M raised by October 2024 per MIT Technology Review, including a $60M Series B backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners; strategic investors include Rio Tinto, SABIC, SDCL and Siam Cement Group.
起因
Rondo Energy was founded in 2020 in the San Francisco Bay Area by John O'Donnell and Pete von Behrens, veterans of concentrating solar thermal, to decarbonize industrial heat, a source of roughly a third of global emissions. Instead of hydrogen or exotic materials, they bet on refractory bricks, a material steelmakers have used for a century, heated by toaster-style iron wires. In March 2023 the first commercial unit, a 2MWh Rondo Heat Battery, began supplying steam at Calgren Renewable Fuels' ethanol plant in Pixley, California, storing heat above 1,000°C and delivering it on a heat-as-a-service basis.
经过
In 2024 Rondo announced projects at six industrial sites across the US and Europe: Diageo distilleries in Illinois and Kentucky, Eastman's Texas plastics-recycling plant, Covestro's German chemical plant, Denmark's GreenLab park and an undisclosed food-and-beverage facility. In June 2024 Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and the European Investment Bank committed €75M in project finance — a Catalyst grant plus EIB loan — for three of those first-of-a-kind installations, aimed squarely at the commercial valley of death between pilots and bankable scale. Canary Media reported EDP agreed to finance up to 2 GWh of heat batteries paired with up to 400 MW of wind and solar, and Siam Cement Group began building a cement-production pilot in Thailand.
结果
Still running and scaling: MIT Technology Review reported in October 2024 that Rondo was producing brick for 2.4 GWh of storage a year with Siam Cement and planning 90 GWh a year, with food, beverage and chemical customers expected to start using commercial units between 2025 and 2027.
背景
Rondo Energy的赌注是工厂将燃气锅炉换成砖块热电池——电阻丝式元件将耐火砖加热至超过1000°C，释放为蒸汽——由廉价、间歇性可再生电力充电。这家初创公司由John O'Donnell和Pete von Behrens于2020年创立，选择经百年验证的耐火砖而不是工程材料，正是为了让技术能在今天的供应链上扩大规模。
首台商用装置——加州Pixley的Calgren Renewable Fuels乙醇厂的一个2MWh Rondo热电池——于2023年3月投入使用，储存热量超过1000°C，以低于燃气热成本的价格按热即服务出售蒸汽。2024年，公司在欧美六个工业场地中标——Diageo酿酒厂、Eastman回收厂、Covestro化工厂、丹麦的GreenLab以及一家食品饮料厂——Breakthrough Energy Catalyst和欧洲投资银行承诺为其中三个提供7500万欧元的拨款加贷款项目融资。
这笔交易明确是为了跨越商业死亡谷而设计：基础设施投资者不会为首台套工厂承保，所以用拨款加贷款为试点付费。截至2024年10月，《麻省理工科技评论》统计的投资约8500万美元，并提名Rondo为2024年值得关注的气候科技公司，且据报道计划将砖块年产量从2.4GWh增至90GWh，食品、饮料和化工客户将于2025至2027年间开始使用商用装置。
这件事要成立，得有什么
- 使用经百年验证的耐火砖意味着核心材料已能以工业规模廉价生产，不像对手的工程材料。
- 销售热即服务将首台套风险从客户转移到Rondo，消除了保守工厂的采用障碍。
- 将Catalyst拨款与EIB贷款打包，直击真正瓶颈——项目融资——而非等待技术变便宜。
- 先锚定乙醇、食品和饮料，使初创公司获得蒸汽需求简单的示范装置，然后再应对水泥和化学品。
可借鉴之处
首台套缺口是融资问题而非技术问题：热即服务加拨款/贷款项目融资可跨越这一缺口，且一个可融资的项目会引来下一个。
后续进展
截至2026-09-02，Rondo继续在加州阿拉米达运营，向工业客户销售热即服务。其首台商用电池自2023年3月起在Calgren运行；截至2024年中期，Diageo、Eastman、Covestro、GreenLab以及EDP支持的项目已公布或建设中，Siam Cement开始在泰国建设水泥试点。公开报道未披露2024年中期之后的项目状态或融资情况，因此2025–2026年的部署进度无法从这些来源核实。
资料来源
- Rondo Energy Announces World's Highest Temperature Thermal Energy Storage
- Rondo Energy funding shows a new way across the climate startup 'valley of death'
- Rondo's heat batteries will soon be cleaning up factories in US, Europe
- 2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Rondo Energy and its hot bricks
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