A large “CO2 battery” facility with the capacity to store enormous amounts of renewable energy and instantly transfer it to the grid when needed has been launched by an Italian business. The first grid-level facility is already operational to test and verify Energy Dome’s claims that their approach for using CO2 instead of lithium would allow energy storage at a far cheaper cost than traditional equivalents. The plant will be a significant step toward achieving 100% renewable energy goals and finding a solution for the enormous volumes of CO2 created by daily and industrial activities.
What is the process of an Energy Dome? At normal pressure and temperature, carbon dioxide is a gas, and Energy Dome uses this gas to build the dome by storing it in a large flexible bladder. CO2 is drawn from the dome and sent into a compressor to be compressed to a pressure that is five times that of Earth’s atmosphere in order to power the batteries. In these circumstances, CO2 turns into a liquid that is kept in pressure tanks for eventual use. The liquid CO2 is heated until it reverts to a gaseous state and is then pumped through a turbine when the energy is required. The enormous bladder fills up and may be recharged once again when energy is withdrawn into the grid.
Due to a mechanism that utilises heat created while charging for discharging, the system emits no emissions into the atmosphere, is reasonably inexpensive, and is extremely efficient. According to Energy Dome, this yields a round-trip efficiency of around 75% and a system cost that is almost 50% less than that of a lithium solution. Energy Dome may not be the most affordable energy storage option, but the majority of alternatives have the significant issue of releasing energy slowly, which causes them to frequently react slowly to periods of high energy demand. Rapid energy release into the grid is possible with the CO2 solution.
Now deployed in Sardinia, Italy, the first Energy Dome will go through one more round of testing before moving on to the commercial scaling phase. “Our hardworking crew and our accomplishments make me proud. Climate change is the most important issue of our time, and we can now offer a solution, said Claudio Spadacini, founder and CEO of Energy Dome. Our ground-breaking invention, the CO2 Battery, is now commercially accessible to enable the dispatch of affordable renewable energy on a worldwide scale. According to Energy Dome, a contract has been inked to build sizable storage facilities in the Middle East, Africa, Germany, Italy, and the Middle East during the next several years.
