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Summary: > Energy Dome’s novel approach to long-duration energy storage dispenses with batteries altogether. Instead, the company erects enclosures that resemb
by Invictus0 4y ago
Summary:
> Energy Dome’s novel approach to long-duration energy storage dispenses with batteries altogether. Instead, the company erects enclosures that resemble tennis bubbles and fills them with carbon dioxide gas. Excess electricity can be used to pressurize the gas into liquid form, storing energy; turning the liquid back into a gas releases that energy, turning a turbine and regenerating electricity.
> As detailed in Canary Media’s previous reporting, this approach has a few advantages relative to other long-duration storage attempts:
> It uses off-the-shelf equipment from mature industrial supply chains. That means Energy Dome doesn’t need to build its own factory, a capital-intensive step that other long-duration startups needed to do. It also means Energy Dome doesn’t need to spend years on laboratory science — it just needs to prove that the equipment all works together the way it’s supposed to.
> The dome is supposed to deliver round-trip efficiency of 75 percent, meaning 75 percent of the energy that goes into the process comes back out at the end. That’s less than typical battery efficiency but a lot better than many long-duration storage contenders.
> Carbon dioxide is easier to compress and store at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure compared to other gaseous storage vehicles, like hydrogen or air.
- foobarian 4y agoHuh. I wonder if that CO2 gets released.
- henearkr 4y agoIt looks like it's captive in the big bubble even in decompressed form, however I think it is always a bad idea to create more CO2 on purpose (it can be released by accident or for maintenance), which is why I really hope this startup can work hand-in-hand with direct-air-capture facilities.
- nomel 4y ago> however I think it is always a bad idea to create more CO2 on purpose If the net CO2 generated is reduced significantly, then it's a net good thing. CO2 is a byproduct of all sorts of industrial processes that we depend on, so I don't think they'll have a problem finding a supply.
- henearkr 4y agoMy solution (to use exclusively DAC for the CO2 supply) looks like that difficult to you? I really think it is the best way to go. It is different, in my opinion, to emit CO2 to create material goods that will last, and to create CO2 for itself that maybe will be vented for maintenance and will need to be refilled.
- phire 4y agoNo, they need to keep the CO2 gas pure, so they can pressurize it again. That's what the dome is for, storing the uncompressed gas. Presumably there is a much smaller metal pressure vessel for storing the liquid CO2.