en.Wedoany.com Reported - The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC) and Italian clean technology company Energy Dome recently announced plans to develop the state's first long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility.
The project will utilize a 20MW/200MWh compressed carbon dioxide system deployed in a new energy innovation zone in the Latrobe Valley, capable of providing continuous power for 10 to 12 hours. The project will be housed at SEC Energy Works, a 143-hectare site in Hazelwood North that is being developed as an innovation space for collaborating with industry on new energy infrastructure and energy storage technologies. This will be the first commercial deployment of closed-loop compressed CO2 energy storage technology in Australia.
Energy Dome's CO2 Battery technology uses electricity to compress carbon dioxide gas into a liquid state for energy storage during charging, and releases energy by expanding the CO2 through a turbine when power is needed, in a closed-loop thermodynamic cycle. Unlike the lithium-ion battery systems that currently dominate Australia's energy storage market, this approach relies on conventional industrial components such as compressors and turbines, which are familiar technologies to the existing engineering workforce in the Latrobe Valley.
SEC CEO Chris Miller stated that as Victoria moves toward its 2030 target of 65% renewable energy, long-duration energy storage will play a system-level role. As an integrated generator and retailer providing 100% renewable electricity to commercial and industrial customers, SEC expects long-duration storage to play a key role in balancing its portfolio, enabling the SEC to provide additional support to the system during multi-day periods of low wind or solar output. Energy Dome founder and CEO Claudio Spadacini noted that the Latrobe Valley's workforce makes it a natural fit for this technology. The CO2 battery can provide 10 to 12 hours of clean, dispatchable power using mature compressor and turbine technologies familiar to local personnel. This project will help support the region's transition from coal while preserving engineering skills that have served Victoria for generations.
Planning and design for the project have begun, with early stakeholder and community consultation underway.
Short-duration battery storage has grown rapidly in Victoria in recent years. The 600MW/1.6GWh Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub in Plumpton, commissioned in December 2025 and co-developed by Singapore's Equis Australia and the SEC, features three independent battery systems with durations of two and four hours. The project, valued at AUD 1.1 billion (approximately USD 770 million), is part of the SEC's broader plan to target 4.5GW of new renewable energy and storage capacity across the state. This 2-to-4-hour deployment model reflects the mainstream trend in the Australian market, where battery storage is primarily focused on shorter durations suited to smoothing morning and evening demand peaks. Long-duration energy storage (typically defined as 8 hours or longer) addresses periods of prolonged low wind or solar output, which short-duration systems cannot cover.
In the LDES supplier ranking released by research and consulting firm Sightline Climate in January 2026, Energy Dome ranked first among non-lithium-ion battery companies and third overall, behind Tesla and Chint Power. Sightline noted that Energy Dome has two commercial projects that have passed final investment decisions, with round-trip efficiency higher than other mechanical storage technologies and competitive capital costs, factors that set it apart among non-lithium-ion battery suppliers.
Energy Dome's first commercial project—a 20MW/200MWh system in Sardinia, Italy—has been operating for about a year, with utility company Engie as its offtaker. Since then, Energy Dome has expanded its commercial project pipeline across multiple markets. In June 2026, it signed a second supply contract with Google for a 23MW/200MWh project in County Offaly, Ireland, which will be built, owned, and operated by Energy Dome under a tolling agreement, and has secured a 10-year capacity market contract from the Irish grid operator. Energy Dome board member Ben Potter told Energy-Storage.news that the Google project is expected to be among the first in a multi-gigawatt-hour global rollout following the tech giant's strategic investment in the startup in mid-2025. In Arizona, Energy Dome is also advancing a 19MW/190MWh project in partnership with utility Salt River Project and Google, located at a former coal-fired power plant site under a 20-year tolling agreement, with expected commissioning in 2029.
