Google and Energy Dome Deploy First CO2 Battery Project in Ireland

Google and Energy Dome have announced their first bilateral commercial contract for a 23 megawatt and 200 megawatt-hour CO2 Battery project in County Offaly, Ireland, the first deployment under a long-term strategic partnership the companies announced last year to deploy Energy Dome's CO2 Battery technology across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. The project has already secured land, planning consent, grid connection and a 10-year capacity contract awarded by EirGrid, Ireland's state-owned transmission system operator, with operations expected to begin in 2028 and a second 200 megawatt-hour unit planned for the same site to establish a long-duration energy storage hub in the Irish Midlands. The Ireland announcement follows a 19 megawatt and 200 megawatt-hour project in Arizona announced the same month by Energy Dome, Google and local utility SRP, demonstrating the multi-continent deployment pace of the partnership.

 

The CO2 Battery Technology and Its Grid Role

 

Energy Dome's CO2 Battery works by using grid power to compress and store carbon dioxide, then expanding the CO2 through a turbine to generate electricity when power is needed, using available off-the-shelf components rather than the lithium-ion and critical minerals that most battery supply chains depend upon. This technology independence from critical mineral supply chains reduces the geopolitical and supply chain risks associated with conventional battery storage at scale, providing a dispatchable long-duration storage solution that can be manufactured and maintained using widely available industrial components. Claudio Spadacini, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Energy Dome, said the project strengthens grid resilience and unlocks the path to 24/7 carbon-free energy in Ireland, describing it as the first commercial bilateral deployment under the strategic partnership that aims to develop CO2 Battery projects across three continents.

The County Offaly site is strategically located on a critical node of the Irish electric grid near the town of Rhode, with high-voltage lines serving the Greater Dublin metropolitan area, making it a particularly high-value location for long-duration storage that can absorb surplus renewable energy during periods of oversupply and dispatch firm power during periods of system stress. The surrounding Rhode Green Energy Park area has abundant solar and wind resources that currently suffer from curtailment due to high congestion in the local grid, meaning the CO2 Battery will directly reduce renewable waste and avoid the costly buildout of transmission infrastructure by enabling smarter utilisation of existing generation capacity. The project is sited on a former peat-fired thermal power plant, repurposing brownfield industrial land into clean energy infrastructure and providing a second life for a site that previously powered the region through fossil fuel combustion.

 

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Ireland's Energy Storage Policy Context

 

The Irish government has identified long-duration energy storage as a key solution for ensuring security of electricity supply, reducing system costs and enabling Ireland's policy target of 80 percent renewable electricity by 2030, making the County Offaly project directly aligned with national energy transition objectives. Ireland's high wind resource creates significant generation variability that requires flexible balancing capacity, and the country has faced growing grid congestion challenges as renewable capacity has expanded faster than transmission and storage infrastructure. The 10-year EirGrid capacity contract provides the revenue certainty that makes the project commercially bankable while simultaneously providing the grid operator with contracted dispatchable capacity that can be called upon during periods of system stress when wind and solar generation is insufficient to meet demand.

Vanessa Hartley, Head of Google Ireland, said Google is committed to catalysing next-generation energy technologies to bolster grid resilience and introduce critical storage capacity to the system, describing the milestone as a next step in the long-term Energy Dome partnership that will help scale promising long-duration energy storage technology toward an affordable, secure and clean energy future. The development partnership with Lumcloon Energy, a leading local developer based in the Irish Midlands, provides the site development expertise and community relationships needed to advance the project through planning and grid connection, creating local employment and long-term community benefits alongside the energy infrastructure investment. Google's involvement as an offtaker and strategic partner provides the commercial signal that validates the CO2 Battery technology for institutional investors and project financiers evaluating the risk profile of the first commercial deployments.

 

Multi-Continent Deployment Strategy and AI Infrastructure Context

 

The simultaneous announcement of CO2 Battery projects in Ireland and Arizona within the same month demonstrates the pace at which the Google and Energy Dome partnership is advancing from strategic announcement to concrete commercial deployment across multiple grid jurisdictions. Energy Dome positions its technology explicitly as a solution for both grid utilities and AI infrastructure operators, addressing the power reliability and clean energy matching requirements of hyperscale computing alongside conventional utility grid balancing applications. As global electricity demand accelerates driven by AI workloads and data centre expansion, long-duration storage that can provide dispatchable 24/7 clean power becomes increasingly valuable for technology companies seeking to match their compute infrastructure energy consumption with genuinely carbon-free electricity on an hourly basis.

The CO2 Battery's ability to store energy over longer durations than lithium-ion systems, typically eight to twelve hours or more, makes it particularly suitable for bridging the gap between periods of renewable energy surplus and evening or overnight demand peaks that shorter duration batteries cannot economically serve. This long-duration capability is central to the 24/7 carbon-free energy ambition that Google has set for its global operations, where intermittent renewable generation must be complemented by storage or other firm clean power sources to achieve hourly clean energy matching rather than annual average renewable matching. The Energy Dome partnership provides Google with access to a storage technology that does not compete for the same critical mineral supply chains as the lithium-ion batteries used in shorter duration applications, diversifying the clean energy technology portfolio available to support the company's operational sustainability commitments.

 

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Outlook for CO2 Battery Technology Commercialisation

 

The County Offaly project's combination of planning consent, grid connection, EirGrid capacity contract and Google partnership provides one of the most commercially de-risked first-of-kind long-duration storage deployments yet announced, significantly reducing the execution risk that typically characterises first commercial projects for novel energy storage technologies. Whether Energy Dome can replicate this de-risking model across subsequent projects in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific will determine the pace at which the CO2 Battery technology achieves the commercial scale needed to become a meaningful contributor to grid decarbonisation globally. The planned second 200 megawatt-hour unit at the Rhode site provides a near-term expansion pathway that can demonstrate modular scalability within an established operational environment before the technology is deployed at new greenfield locations.

Sustained delivery of the Ireland and Arizona projects on schedule and within budget would provide the operational track record needed to attract project finance capital for larger deployments and accelerate the confidence of utilities, grid operators and corporate offtakers in the CO2 Battery as a commercially reliable long-duration storage solution. The convergence of Ireland's 80 percent renewable electricity target, grid congestion challenges that make storage economically compelling, Google's 24/7 clean energy commitment and Energy Dome's novel technology creates conditions in which the County Offaly project could become a defining reference case for how long-duration energy storage enables ambitious renewable energy targets in high-wind island grid environments.

 

Source: Energy Dome