Energy Dome has revealed that they have concluded their $11 million Series A funding round. It is an Italian company and now it will use the money to develop the technology for its CO2 Battery.
The CO2 battery will store solar renewable energy during the day and release it at night and during peak hours. It will not have the performance degradation issues like lithium-ion batteries either.
Solar farm projects like the U.S.’s $1.5 billion, 13,000-acre Mammoth Solar Farm are booming and there is a need for more sustainable operations. According to Energy Dome, its “modular, scalable energy storage solution will allow for solar and wind generation to be dispatchable 24 hours per day.”
These CO2 batteries will keep the same performance during the 25 years of their expected operation time. Hence, the cost of storing energy will be halved when compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries.
The mechanism uses carbon dioxide in a closed-loop cycle, during which it is converted from gas to liquid and then back into gas. The “dome” from which the company gets its name is an inflatable atmospheric gas holder that is filled with CO2 in its gaseous form. When charging, the system uses electrical power from the grid, which powers a compressor that draws CO2 from the dome and compresses it, generating heat that is sent to a thermal energy storage device. Afterward, the carbon dioxide is made to liquefy and is then stored at an appropriate temperature to complete the charge cycle.
The discharging process reverses the mechanism. The heat from the thermal energy storage system is recovered and the hot carbon dioxide is released into a turbine that drives a generator. It will have around 200 MWh in storage capacity.
Its funding round was headed by VC firm 360 Capital and has investors like Barclays’ Sustainable Impact Capital program, and a climate technology startup accelerator called Third Derivative.
“Grid systems across the world need effective, low-cost storage to pair with renewable energy,” said Claudio Spadacini, founder and CEO of Energy Dome. “We’re excited to be leveraging this investment and agreement to accelerate our deployment of this transformational technology. We thank all of the supporters who made today’s announcement possible.”
It is important to note that there is no CO2 released during the charging and discharging process. Still, a great amount of CO2 is needed and it might be taken from carbon removal plants like the direct air capture (DAC) facility under construction in the U.K. This will be a futuristic step in the arena of renewable energy storage.