The photo is sourced from energydome.com
The technology, patented by Energy Dome, is an alternative to accumulation of energy in form of compressed air (Compressed Air Energy Storage – CAES). Since the compressed air density is very low, the only economical way of CAES is underground reservoir use; such reservoirs are built in place of depleted salt mines (it limits geography of such projects). The solution to this problem might be liquefaction of air (Liquid Air Energy Storage – LAES), that permits to achieve high energy density, but contingent upon necessity of using cryogenic temperatures (minus 190 Celsius) and exposure to high financial costs.
Specialists from the Energy Dome suggest escaping from this dichotomy via the CO2 employment, which achieves high density during compression under temperatures of ambient surroundings. Carbon dioxide while charging batteries will be extracted from a gasholder and subjected to compression in order to be stored under 70 bar pressure (70 times higher than atmospheric pressure), being in supercritical state (when the substance remain gaseous, but has the same density as liquid). The batteries discharge will happen as a result of pressure drop: the released CO2 will drive electric turbine and afterwards go to the gasholder, from where one might extract it for a new charging cycle.
“We believe that the solution based on CO2 is truly very promising alternative for long lasting energy storage. This technology potentially is able to help reducing carbon footprint of power domain and make renewable sources of energy controllable”, – Energy Dome quotes in its release Kieran White the vice president of Ørsted for terrestrial projects in Europe.
The joint venture of Ørsted and Energy Dome will contribute to formation of the energy storage market in Europe. According to an estimate of the International Energy Agency (IEA), regional investments in this sector have grown from $1 billion in 2020 to $2 billion in 2021 and to $3 billion in 2022. The storage batteries capacity in European power sector by the end of this year will rise by 3.3 gigawatt-hours. Concurrently, by 2031, capacity of functioning accumulators will reach 89 GW*H, says the Wood Mackenzie forecast.
