A new energy-storage facility is on its way toward becoming a reality in Wisconsin, and in an interesting turnabout, it will use carbon dioxide as the medium to store sustainable power.
The Energy Dome, as both the company and technology are called, is essentially a large domed storage facility used to house carbon dioxide, which can be shifted between its gaseous and liquid phases to generate electricity, as CleanTechnica reported.
Power is applied to compress and condense the planet-warming gas into its liquid form, which is then stored at ambient temperatures, reducing overall energy requirements. That can be kept for around 10 hours and then evaporated back into a gas, driving a turbine to produce output electricity.
The facility is called the Columbia Energy Storage project and will be hosted by local gas and electricity provider Alliant Energy, per the report. It will help boost grid stability and deliver enough electricity to power around 18,000 homes on a single charge.
It will be the first zero-pollution Energy Dome facility in North America, as long as the application gets final approval from regulators. Once it gets the all-clear, construction should begin in 2026, with plans to be online by 2027.
"Once that CO2 supply is fully filled in the dome, we'll be able to cycle that back and forth," Tony Palese, an Alliant spokesman, shared with Wisconsin Public Radio.
"It's a closed-loop system, so [it's] very efficient and a good source of power."
Unless there's a leak or accident, the report explained, the CO2 needed is a one-time infusion.
The company claims that it should be able to function without degradation of capacity or performance for over 30 years. By comparison, it added, lithium-ion battery storage has a high rate of degradation and only lasts around 12 years.
The pilot Energy Dome facility was built in Sardinia, Italy, and is rated at 20 megawatts. It has the potential of being scaled up to 200 megawatts for the Wisconsin-based facility, which would consist of 10 individual 20-megawatt units.
The Energy Dome's method of using carbon dioxide to store energy is a unique solution to the overabundance of this planet-warming gas, and it feeds into our clean energy needs. It can be used alongside other storage mediums to support a balanced grid that's powered by sustainable solar and wind energy, further reducing our reliance on dirty fuel sources.
On top of being a zero-pollution source of storage, the company explained that its patented Energy Dome technology uses only water, steel, and CO2 to operate. Plus, the components to build the facilities are readily available worldwide, making it more accessible than typical battery facilities.
"Off-the-shelf equipment, standard components, modularity, and scalability are the features that make the CO2 Battery a ready-to-go solution to support the energy transition effectively," per the company's website.
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