POET, the world’s largest producer of biofuels, and Antora Energy, a leading U.S. energy storage company, announced the commissioning of Antora’s 5 gigawatt-hour, multi-day thermal energy storage system at POET’s Big Stone City, South Dakota, bioprocessing facility.
The project advanced from initial construction to delivering energy in under 12 months and will be fully operational later this year. Upon completion, it will rank among the world’s largest energy storage projects by capacity—delivered at the speed required to meet surging domestic energy demand.
The project uses Antora’s technology to improve efficiency and lower costs at POET Bioprocessing – Big Stone, helping produce homegrown fuel that reduces harmful emissions and lowers prices at the pump. The significant investment in POET’s facility has created and supported over 300 manufacturing and construction jobs in rural South Dakota and at Antora’s recently expanded San Jose, California gigafactory, where all of the company’s thermal batteries are made.
Antora’s system provides POET with competitively priced, around-the-clock energy under a long-term heat offtake agreement, enabling the plant to increase bioethanol production and create tens of millions of dollars annually in new market opportunities for South Dakota farmers.
“POET is dedicated to supplying the world with affordable, American-made biofuels and bioproducts,” said Jeff Broin, POET Founder and CEO. “Our nation’s energy future will be defined by innovation, and that’s exactly what we’re focused on—pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and delivering viable solutions that strengthen national security and rural economies. By investing in next-generation technologies, we’re leading the way to a biofuture powered by American energy.”
“With this project, Antora is delivering affordable energy to POET—fast,” said Andrew Ponec, Co-Founder and CEO of Antora Energy. “We’re proud of what this deployment means for the workers who designed, built, and installed these batteries, and more broadly, for American manufacturing. This is what reindustrialization looks like—American innovation driving industrial competitiveness, domestic supply chains spanning a dozen states, and jobs from the factory floor to the construction site. And it’s all delivered at the speed required to meet soaring domestic energy demand.”
Grok Ventures structured and provided the project-level financing as the sole external investor, enabling the project to reach financial close and bringing this pioneering facility to life.
“Antora has built something genuinely compelling, a technology and a team capable of delivering affordable, reliable energy to American industry at real scale,” said Ridhaa Ahmed, Head of Infrastructure and Private Equity at Grok Ventures. “Our conviction in the technology, the team and the commercial fundamentals gave us the confidence to structure a financing solution befitting its transformative nature. The commercial logic is strong, the opportunity consequential, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Antora as they scale this technology across America and the world.”
The project has strong state and local partners, including the South Dakota Board of Economic Development. The U.S. Department of Energy, during the first Trump Administration, provided critical early R&D funding for Antora’s technology, and this funding has since catalyzed hundreds of millions in private investment in the company.
Antora worked closely with Otter Tail Power—a utility that provides power at some of the lowest costs in the nation to customers across South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota—to develop an innovative electric rate that enables the system to deliver 24/7 thermal energy without increasing costs for other consumers. Approved by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission last year, the rate allows the system to selectively and rapidly charge during periods of surplus local energy production, making better use of existing grid infrastructure. The structure offers a model for utilities across the country to responsibly integrate thermal energy storage while benefitting everyone on the grid.
“What we’ve built in South Dakota shows Antora can deliver the reliable and affordable energy required for American competitiveness,” said Jordan Kearns, Executive Vice President of Project Development at Antora Energy. “We’re proud of what we’ve built with POET, and we’re ready to bring our solution to industrial facilities and data centers across America.”
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