Energy Dome and its carbon dioxide batteries

Energy Dome 及其二氧化碳电池

There’s a growing need for long-duration storage to meet energy demand and balance out renewables on the grid. Energy Dome uses compressed carbon dioxide gas in its massive grid batteries, which can deliver power for up to 24 hours. 为了满足能源需求并平衡电网中的可再生能源，人们对长时储能的需求日益增长。Energy Dome 利用压缩二氧化碳气体作为其大型电网电池的介质，能够提供长达 24 小时的电力供应。

As the world races to meet growing electricity demand, solar and onshore wind power have become the cheapest and quickest-to-deploy sources to install on the grid. But, despite their upsides, both are subject to variations in weather patterns, which means supplies can be intermittent. Energy Dome is using stored carbon dioxide to help smooth out gaps between supply and demand. 随着全球竞相满足日益增长的电力需求，太阳能和陆上风能已成为电网中成本最低、部署最快的能源。然而，尽管它们具有优势，但两者都受天气模式变化的影响，这意味着电力供应可能是不稳定的。Energy Dome 正利用储存的二氧化碳来帮助平抑供需之间的缺口。

The key component of an Energy Dome plant is a huge white dome that covers an area about the size of seven soccer fields and holds about 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. When energy is available—say, from a connected solar farm—compressors squeeze the gas, turning it into a liquid that’s then stored in carbon-steel tanks. That process generates heat, which the system holds in a proprietary thermal storage material. Energy Dome 工厂的核心组件是一个巨大的白色穹顶，其覆盖面积约为七个足球场大小，可容纳约 2,000 公吨二氧化碳。当有能源可用时（例如来自连接的太阳能发电场），压缩机将气体压缩并转化为液体，然后储存在碳钢罐中。该过程会产生热量，系统将其保存在一种专有的储热材料中。

Then, when the grid needs power, the carbon dioxide is released from the tanks and warmed with the stored heat, turning it back into a gas. That gaseous carbon dioxide then passes through a turbine to generate electricity and flows back into the dome, ready to begin the cycle again. 随后，当电网需要电力时，二氧化碳从储罐中释放出来，并利用储存的热量加热，使其重新变回气体。这种气态二氧化碳随后通过涡轮机发电，并流回穹顶，准备开始下一个循环。

Compressing gas to store energy isn’t new—utilities have been using compressed air in underground caverns to hang on to reserves for decades. But Energy Dome’s approach doesn’t require any specific geology to work, so it could be more easily scaled to help grids around the world. 压缩气体以储存能量并非新鲜事——几十年来，公用事业公司一直利用地下洞穴中的压缩空气来储备能源。但 Energy Dome 的方法不需要特定的地质条件即可运作，因此它更容易扩展，从而帮助世界各地的电网。

Energy Dome turned on its first commercial plant in Sardinia, Italy, in 2025. The facility has a capacity of 200 megawatt-hours. That’s enough to power about 18,000 Italian homes for 10 hours. Energy Dome 于 2025 年在意大利撒丁岛启用了其首个商业工厂。该设施的容量为 200 兆瓦时，足以满足约 18,000 户意大利家庭 10 小时的用电需求。

Key indicators

关键指标

Industry: Energy storage
行业： 储能
Founded: 2020
成立时间： 2020 年
Headquarters: Milan, Italy
总部： 意大利米兰
Notable fact: Energy Dome has plans for 30 gigawatt-hours’ worth of projects across five continents.
值得注意的事实： Energy Dome 计划在五大洲开展总计 30 吉瓦时的项目。

Potential for impact

潜在影响

Cheaper energy storage could help wind and solar meet more of the world’s electricity demand. Today, lithium-ion batteries dominate new installations for short-duration applications of up to four hours. But the economics aren’t competitive for longer durations: A lithium-ion system that provides eight hours of storage at the same power output requires doubling the number of cells. 更廉价的储能技术可以帮助风能和太阳能满足全球更多的电力需求。目前，锂离子电池在长达四小时的短时应用中占据了新增装机的主导地位。但在更长时间的应用中，其经济性并不具备竞争力：一个在相同功率输出下提供八小时储能的锂离子系统，需要将电池数量增加一倍。

Energy Dome estimates that its technology is roughly 10% to 15% cheaper than lithium-ion batteries for an eight-hour system, and that the economics are even better for longer-duration systems of up to 24 hours. The company says its ability to scale bigger and faster than lithium-ion boils down to the fact that its design uses existing commercially available equipment like compressors and storage tanks. Its plants that are either operational or under contract have eight or 10 hours of capacity. Energy Dome 估计，对于八小时的系统，其技术比锂离子电池便宜约 10% 到 15%，而在长达 24 小时的长时系统中，其经济性表现更佳。该公司表示，其规模化速度和能力之所以优于锂离子电池，归根结底是因为其设计使用了压缩机和储罐等现有的商业化设备。其目前已投入运营或已签约的工厂均具备 8 到 10 小时的储能容量。

Caveats

注意事项

Energy Dome only has one commercial project that’s operational. It’ll need to build many more to provide the 30 gigawatt-hours of storage it has planned. The technology also isn’t quite as efficient as lithium-ion. Overall, Energy Dome’s process can return about 70% of the electricity it stores to the grid (a measure known as roundtrip efficiency). Lithium-ion batteries average roughly 90%. But some other long-duration storage techniques clock in lower; some iron-air batteries, for example, are around 50%. Energy Dome 目前仅有一个商业项目在运营。要实现其计划的 30 吉瓦时储能目标，它还需要建造更多的项目。此外，该技术的效率也不如锂离子电池。总体而言，Energy Dome 的工艺可以将储存电力的约 70% 回馈给电网（这一指标被称为往返效率）。锂离子电池的平均效率约为 90%。但其他一些长时储能技术效率更低；例如，一些铁-空气电池的效率仅在 50% 左右。

Energy Dome’s plants may not all be benign from a planet-warming perspective. The company offers a version of its system that pairs its carbon dioxide battery with natural gas turbines. That version replaces internal heat storage with waste heat from the gas turbines to help evaporate carbon dioxide. That helps the plant run more efficiently but ultimately results in greenhouse-gas emissions from the natural gas turbines. 从全球变暖的角度来看，Energy Dome 的工厂可能并非完全无害。该公司提供一种将其二氧化碳电池与天然气涡轮机配套使用的系统版本。该版本利用天然气涡轮机的废热代替内部储热来帮助蒸发二氧化碳。这有助于提高工厂的运行效率，但最终会导致天然气涡轮机产生温室气体排放。

Next steps

下一步计划

Energy Dome has a pipeline of about 30 gigawatt-hours’ worth of plants in the works around the world, and many of these projects could come online by the end of the decade. Because the company uses off-the-shelf components, the time from a signed contract to delivered capacity is only two years. In June 2026, for example, it signed a deal with Google to build a 200 MWh plant in Ireland, which is expected to come online in 2028. Energy Dome 在全球范围内拥有约 30 吉瓦时的项目储备，其中许多项目有望在本十年末投入运营。由于该公司使用现成的组件，从签署合同到交付产能的时间仅需两年。例如，2026 年 6 月，该公司与谷歌签署了一项协议，将在爱尔兰建造一座 200 兆瓦时的工厂，预计将于 2028 年投入运营。