Tech company Google enterered into a partnership for the use of long-duration energy storage.
Energy Dome, a company working on long-duration energy storage, announced a global commercial partnership with Google using Energy Dome’s CO2 Battery technology to enable carbon-free energy for the grids that power Google’s operations.
Google also made a strategic investment in Energy Dome, since long-duration energy storage resolves a flexibility constraint by storing solar and wind energy and dispatching it later when needed. This technology enables “firm” electricity to meet demand in a reliable, clean and cost-effective way.
Google’s first commercial long-duration energy storage deal is part of a growing portfolio of advanced energy technologies to run its operations on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030.
Energy Dome’s proven and market-ready CO2 Battery technology reflects its ability to be deployed at the scale, speed and affordability required on a global basis.
The CO2 Battery is capable of continuously dispatching energy for periods of eight to 24 hours, unlocking enough firm electricity to meet both the baseload and flexibility requirements of large energy users. The modular, site-independent product design uses off-the-shelf equipment without supply chain bottlenecks, ensuring a highly scalable solution to store massive amounts of energy efficiently and cost-effectively.
The mechanical components of the technology help stabilize the grid by providing natural inertia from rotating machinery. This is especially important given the concurrent ramp-up of solar and wind — which lack inertia — with the ramp-down of legacy fossil-fuel power stations, whose inertia is lost when the plants are decommissioned. The CO2 Battery thus contributes to maintaining grid resiliency by acting as a shock absorber to smooth out sudden changes in frequency.
“Google is committed to powering our operations with clean energy, and Energy Dome’s technologically proven and scalable long-duration energy storage solution can help us unlock rapid progress,” said Maud Texier, Director of EMEA Energy at Google, in a statement. “But this isn’t just about Google. By helping to scale this first-of-a-kind LDES technology, we hope to help communities everywhere gain greater access to reliable, affordable electricity and support grid resilience as we integrate more renewable energy sources.”
The commercial agreement seeks to develop CO2 Battery projects in all the key geographical strategic areas, including Europe, America, and the Asia-Pacific region with the goal of scaling up deployment at a rapid pace to meet Google’s 2030 carbon-free energy goals.
A pipeline of sites and projects has been identified in the partnership, which are currently in development and contracting stages.