Holcim Trials Thermal Batteries to Slash Cement's Carbon Footprint

Holcim has installed two Joule Hive thermal batteries at one of its cement plants, marking a real-world test of technology that could reshape how one of the world’s most carbon-intensive industries is powered. The batteries come from Electrified Thermal Solutions, an MIT spin-off that has spent more than a decade developing the concept of electrified firebrick as a way to store heat.

Thermal batteries work by storing electricity as high-temperature heat rather than as chemical energy, which makes them especially suited to industrial processes that need sustained, intense heat. Cement production is a prime candidate: it relies on extremely high temperatures that have historically been delivered by burning fossil fuels. If electric heating can match that performance, it opens a path to cutting emissions from a sector that has few easy alternatives.

The broader context is the roughly one-fifth of global energy consumption tied to industrial heat, a demand that has largely resisted electrification. ETS’s approach uses conductive firebrick to reach the temperatures required, and the Holcim installation is intended to demonstrate whether the concept holds up outside the lab. The outcome of this trial could inform how quickly heavy industry adopts thermal storage as a replacement for combustion.