Italian Startup Raises $60M in Total to Boost Energy Storage
Italian energy storage company, Energy Dome, has raised $44 million in Series B round, totalling to $60 million in all, while enabling its patented storage solution to commercially scale up globally.
Energy Dome is a climate tech startup providing long-term solutions for energy storage by using dispatchable solar and wind power alternatives.
Storage for Renewable Energy
Renewable energy sources are the future of the energy transition. Their use has been growing as entities look for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. They’re not only a clean and sustainable source of power, but they’re also good both for people’s and planet’s health.
However, the sun is not always shining while the wind is also not blowing all the time. It means storing these green power sources is critical to fully maximize their use and they’re vital in decarbonizing the power sector.
Just recently, the US President Biden proposed a climate rule requiring power plants to reduce their emissions using carbon capture.
In Europe, coal is no longer the most used fuel in large combustion plants while their emissions have declined significantly. Stricter emission limits and climate policies aimed at growing the use of renewables or cleaner fuels will drive further declines in the sector’s emissions.
But storage remains a major concern in advancing and scaling up the use of renewables worldwide, calling for technological innovations. This is where Energy Dome steps in to provide the energy storage solution.
Energy Dome and its Patented CO2 Battery
Since it began operation in 2020, Energy Dome has progressed from a mere concept to testing at multimegawatt scale. The Italian climate tech startup is pioneering a patented solution for energy storage and power grid decarbonization.
The company invented CO2 Battery, which it claims to be an energy storage system that allows cost-effective storage of big amounts of renewable energy.
In June last year, the startup launched the first CO2 battery in the world saying that it can be used quickly around the globe. The battery works for storing both wind and solar energy.
Energy Dome also said CO2 is the perfect fluid to cost-effectively store power through its closed thermodynamic process. That’s because it’s one of the few gasses that they can manipulate both in its gaseous and liquid forms.
Whenever energy is needed, carbon dioxide warms up, evaporates and expands, turning a turbine and producing power. The gas can also be condensed and stored as a liquid under pressure without needing extremely low temperatures. This results in high density energy storage with no CO2 emission releases into the atmosphere.
The Milan-based company said that its patented CO2 Battery can store renewable energy with “75% RTE (AC-AC, MV-MV)”. That means each unit of renewable energy the battery stores, it can return 75% for future use.
Asserting their technology’s readiness and performance, the startup’s founder and CEO Claudio Spadacini noted that:
“Our CO2 Battery is ready for the market and, after closing the Series B round, we are ready to guarantee its performance to any customer that is real about getting rid of fossil fuels and substituting with dispatchable renewable energies.”
$44 Million for Expansion
Energy Dome’s Series B round is led by venture capital firms Eni Next and Neva SGR, giving the company about $44 million, bringing its total raise to around $60 million.
Other Series B investors include Barclays’ Sustainable Impact Capital, CDP Venture Capital, Novum Capital Partners, and 360 Capital. They also support Energy Dome’s previous fundraising rounds. New investors joining this round are Japan Energy Fund and Elemental Excelerator.
The company will use the funding to expand its team and global operations and commercialize its CO2 Battery design.
Energy Dome manages to catch investors’ interests globally by being able to scale its business to become fully commercial only in 3 years. Within this short timeframe, the company has built a network of power producers, corporate customers, and facilities.
That capacity resulted in a pipeline of over 9 GWh in global markets including Europe, the U.S., Australia, and India.
The tech company is also planning to make 2 standard 20MW–200MWh frames commercially operational by the end of 2024. This project is underway with the first unit in the process of manufacturing.
The proceeds will also back Energy Dome’s expansion in the U.S. market to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Investment Tax Credits for energy storage.
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