Earlier this month Electrified Thermal Solutions (ETS) announced it was supplying two thermal batteries to Holcim. Then, earlier this week the European Commission (EC) published the rules for its auction of support for projects using industrial process heat. Talk about good timing! Plus, UltraTech Cement has reported that it is rolling out the use of electrical batteries at its plants to support sustainable energy usage.
ETS’ release in mid-September 2026 did not say which Holcim cement plant (or plants) would be using its products. Although the US-based company did open its European office in Amsterdam in April 2026 “to scale across EU industry.” At the time it noted that, “in Scandinavia, and parts of Western Europe, off-peak electricity pricing combined with high natural gas costs make the Joule Hive Thermal Battery (JHTB) cost-competitive with natural gas and other fossil fuels, without requiring subsidies. In larger industrial markets like Germany and France, the volatility of natural gas prices, exacerbated by geopolitical supply disruptions, has underscored the need for more predictable energy alternatives.” The obvious deployment locations might be a Holcim plant somewhere with access to plentiful renewable energy, with highly variable electricity prices, with access to government subsidies and/or one of the group’s flagship NextGen locations.
It did reveal that the initial deployment would consist of two JHTBs as part of Holcim’s electrification roadmap. The cement company will invest in ETS as part of the arrangement. The batteries convert and store electricity as heat, delivering heat of up to 1800°C from 480V to 100kV electricity. When Global Cement Magazine interviewed ETS’ CEO Daniel Stack for the March 2026 issue, he pointed out that a typical cement plant requires around 150MWth and that each JHTB provides 5MW. The units can be used in an array to target the calciner, the preheater tower or the kiln. With this in mind it will be instructive to see where Holcim decides to target in the pilot.
Holcim has not commented on these developments. However, it invested in SaltX Technology in mid-2025. This Sweden-based company has developed a method to use electric plasma technology for high temperature applications, such as making clinker, using its Electric Arc Calciner. In its 2025 sustainability report Holcim said it was aiming to establish the world’s first plant for all-electric cement production. Readers can find out more about SaltX in the September 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine.
ETS opening an office in Europe and Holcim ordering heat batteries coincides with the EC finalising the rules this week for its second Europe-wide auction for projects decarbonising industrial process heat. Heat batteries don’t necessarily have to be powered by process heat, but it is one way to do it. The auction has a planned budget of €1bn, sourced from revenue created by the European Union Emissions Trading System. The categories covered include: electrified options such as heat pumps, thermal storage, plasma torches and electric boilers; direct renewable heat from solar thermal or geothermal sources; and nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors. It is expected to open to bidders in early December 2026. Successful bidders will then receive a fixed premium subsidy that is linked to the related CO2 emissions reductions for up to five years. 65 projects were selected at the first auction, although this did not include any cement companies.
Elsewhere, UltraTech Cement announced this week that it had reached a new decarbonisation milestone with the news that its 3.3Mt/yr Kukurdih cement plant in Chhattisgarh had met 100% of its electricity requirements through ‘green’ energy since April 2026. It has done this through a mixture of using renewable energy sources and a waste heat recovery system. The cement company says that nearly a third of its 76 plants have sourced over 50% of their electricity from sustainable sources in this time period. Notably, UltraTech is also progressively deploying its Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). One example of this was a 7.5MW project with Gentari at the Sewagram cement plant Gujarat in mid-2025 bringing together solar and wind generation with battery storage. More such projects have followed. We have reported on another example of electrical battery storage today with the news that CleanMax and Nuvoco Vistas have announced a partnership to develop a wind - solar hybrid energy project in Bhikamkhore, Rajasthan, including a 2MW BESS.
Global Cement Weekly has covered heat batteries and energy storage now and then over the years. Other industrial heat battery companies include Rondo Energy, Antora Energy and Brenmiller Energy. Rondo Energy, for example, launched a 33MWh battery at one of SCG’s plants in Saraburi, Thailand in late 2025. How popular they become and/or whether a default deployment method emerges remains to be seen. Yet, the hope of EU funding for these kinds of projects may yield more projects in Europe. Meanwhile, UltraTech Cement is showing everyone what can be done with electrical batteries and renewable power sources.
