A series of demonstration projects set to launch this year in Kern County will help test the commercial viability of a thermal energy storage technology designed to put renewable electricity to use powering high-heat industrial processes.

Rondo Energy Inc. is taking on two problems complicating the shift to renewable energy: figuring out how to power heavy industry without burning fossil fuels and what to do with the surplus electricity weighing on prices when wind and solar power is abundant.

A Bill Gates-backed startup is betting that renewables can serve as the foundation for low-carbon cement and be more than a clean resource for cars, buildings and power generation.

In climate circles we spend a lot of time talking about manufacturing and power generation in the effort of cutting CO2 emissions. It’s pretty rare that I get a whiff of a company that has a clear path toward cutting global carbon emissions by a full percent — but that’s what Rondo Energy pitched to its investors and customers, raising $22 million and setting some very excited environmentalists’ hearts a-flutter in the process.

Investment from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners enables Rondo Energy to deploy its zero-carbon Heat Batteries to cost-effectively slash industrial emissions

A Bay Area startup says it has a new solution for one of the most stubborn problems in the transition to clean energy: replacing the fossil fuels burned for high-temperature cement production with a climate-friendly alternative.

Watch Rondo CEO John O’Donnell’s presentation, “A viable pathway to zero-carbon, continuous process heat”

Rondo Energy is a proud sponsor of the Renewable Thermal Collaborative.