Heliogen and NantG Power Announce Strategic Collaboration to Innovate Solar Thermal Calcination Design

Research & design for cutting-edge pilot calcination facility to advance sustainable energy storage technologies

Heliogen, a leading provider of AI-enabled concentrating solar energy technology, and NantG Power, LLC, an advanced battery and manufacturing company developing a radical new approach to designing and manufacturing batteries, announced an engineering services agreement to leverage Heliogen’s core intellectual property to develop a pilot solar thermal calcination facility.

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“As an early investor in Heliogen, we clearly see the transformative value of their novel solar thermal energy technologies”

Under the agreement, Heliogen, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Heliogen Holdings, Inc., will provide front-end concept design services and research and development (“R&D”) engineering services, paving the way for NantG Power to purchase a commercial-scale calcination facility. The scope of this initial contract includes field testing at Heliogen’s demonstration-scale facility in Lancaster, CA, the development of a technoeconomic model for a future commercial facility, and preliminary engineering services for a new pilot calcination facility. This initial work will serve as a basis for the future deployment of commercial-scale calcination facilities.

NantG Power expects the impact of such process improvements to be transformational in the battery materials supply chain, enabling the company to produce anode and cathode active materials close to domestic mining sites. Moreover, the collaboration is expected to limit the infrastructure upgrades needed, including electrical power generation and transmission, while avoiding shipping of unrefined feedstock materials across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, resulting in a more environmentally friendly supply chain for calcination.

“As an early investor in Heliogen, we clearly see the transformative value of their novel solar thermal energy technologies,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, NantG Power’s Chairman. “We are highly confident in Heliogen’s growth and ability under the current management team, led by Christie Obiaya, to successfully execute on its strategic plan and deliver value for all stakeholders. Our contract with Heliogen not only reaffirms this confidence, but also highlights the growing market demand for sustainable, clean energy storage alternatives like the ones NantG Power is developing. By harnessing the power of concentrated sunlight, Heliogen’s solutions can replace the need for fossil fuels and reduce the carbon footprint of industries, such as ceramic powders manufacturing, that rely on calcination. In addition to the materials processing benefits of reducing carbon emissions, we believe the process will be more profitable and economically impactful by creating more technical jobs, have higher throughput manufacturing and the ability to produce materials domestically.”

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As part of the agreement, which was executed in March, Heliogen will be compensated by NantG on a time and materials basis.

“We are excited to begin this collaboration with NantG Power, which demonstrates the market attractiveness of Heliogen’s concentrating solar thermal technology for carbon-intensive industries that use calcination processes, such as cement and lithium extraction,” said Christie Obiaya, Chief Executive Officer of Heliogen, Inc. “Importantly, this relationship enables us to effectively fund certain R&D activities without compromising our cost reduction initiative. By maintaining an externally funded, separate resource pool for this project, we ensure that our commercial team remains focused on the successful deployment of our highest technical readiness product—our commercial-scale steam unit. This balance between innovation and commercialization is essential to driving sustainable growth for Heliogen and delivering groundbreaking clean energy solutions to our partners and customers.”

Heliogen’s innovative solar technologies have the potential to disrupt traditional calcination processes and bring about a more sustainable future. Heliogen previously announced a $4.1 million award granted from the Department of Energy for R&D into pathways for commercial implementation of a solar thermal calciner.

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