Italian carbon battery company Energy Dome partners with Google

Silicon Valley search engine giant Google is set to accelerate the global adoption of Energy Dome’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) battery technology after investing in the Italian business and signing a commercial partnership with it.

Milan-based Energy Dome‘s LDES technology involves charging by using low-price, clean grid electricity to move gaseous CO₂ to be stored under pressure in its liquefied form. The batteries are discharged by evaporating the CO₂ and expanding it through a turbine to generate electricity on its way back to the gas holder.

Announcing the deal with Google today – without specifying how much the US company invested in Energy Dome or the scale of LDES project capacity envisaged – Energy Dome said its systems can store electricity for eight to 24 hours, are modular, have no significant site restrictions, and are free of supply chain bottlenecks when it comes to their required materials.

The turbines used by Energy Dome also ensure its batteries offer the same kind of grid inertia as is usually provided by conventional power stations. The inertia relates to the amount of time the turbine will take to come to a complete halt in the event of a sudden loss of input, time which enables grid operators to bring alternative power sources online.

Energy Dome described the partnership as Google’s “first commercial long-duration energy storage deal,” and said its technology – to be rolled out at sites in Europe, America, and the Asia-Pacific region – will help Google achieve its ambition of round-the-clock, “carbon-free” operations by 2030.

The Milanese company said a pipeline of Google CO₂ battery sites has already been identified and are at the development or contracting stage.