As renewable energy resources like solar and wind energy produce a larger share of the global energy supply, reliable energy storage is crucial to address the issue of intermittency. In December, we had a chance to sit down with some of our peers at the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council for a webinar discussion about the potential to quickly build long duration energy storage, such as Energy Dome’s CO2 Batteries, to help meet aggressive renewable energy goals.

The LDES Council found, in a recent report, that long duration energy storage has the capacity to deploy 1.5 to 2.5 terawatts and 85 to 140 terawatt-hours of power capacity by 2040. That’s 8 to 15 times the total storage capacity deployed today and would entail investment of $1.5 to $3 trillion dollars and create $1.3 trillion of value between now and 2040.

Even by the end of our current decade, we could see a twenty-fold increase in energy storage deployments – for a total of 358 Gigawatts, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance in their recent report, “The Storage Decade.” We agree with BNEF that the coming years will be a massive opportunity for new investment in energy storage.

The right energy storage technologies can help support many different grid services, from generation to transmission to customer energy management and ancillary services. Low-cost energy storage solutions using technologies other than lithium ion batteries are needed to bring more clean energy to the grid and increase the flexibility of our energy systems. Thermodynamic, mechanical, chemical, electrochemical and other long-duration energy technologies can deliver cleaner energy at a lower cost.

Energy Dome is working hard to scale our CO2 Battery storage technology to enable a carbon-free energy system. We use readily available carbon dioxide – the same gas that causes climate change – to fight against it. Our CO2 Battery technology is based on a closed-loop thermodynamic process that efficiently stores energy by manipulating CO2 under different state conditions. In charging mode, the CO2 is compressed and stored under pressure at ambient temperature in a high-density supercritical or liquid state. In discharging mode, the CO2 is expanded back into a gas and used to drive a turbine, releasing the energy to the grid in a closed-loop, zero-emission system.

Our commercial demonstration facility is under construction in Sardinia, Italy and will be able to store 2.5 MW and 4 MWh of energy when completed. Our next project, a 100 megawatt-hour (MWh) CO2 Battery we’re planning in partnership with Italian utility A2A, will support the increased use of renewable power in the generation mix and address the growing need for energy storage for the local electrical grid. Deploying robust long-duration energy storage will allow us to tackle the most fundamental need for society: solving our climate crisis.

We’re honored to join our friends and colleagues at the LDES Council, sponsored by McKinsey, to help provide fact-based guidance to governments, grid operators, and the power industrys on the deployment of long-duration energy storage. To learn more about the Council and hear more about upcoming webinars and events, visit www.ldescouncil.com.