Italian energy tech firm Energy Dome is to develop a 20 MW/200 MWh ‘CO2 battery’ in Victoria to boost energy security across the Australian state.

The company said on July 10 it would develop the project in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley in partnership with state-owned renewable energy company SEC, although financial details were not disclosed.

At 10 hours, the plant will be the longest-duration grid battery in the state, more than double the roughly four-hour duration of any battery operating in Victoria today, according to Energy Dome.

The site also benefits from existing substations and transmission infrastructure.

Energy Dome has said previously its technology uses CO2 in a closed-loop charge/discharge cycle as a storage agent. Before charging, gaseous CO2 is kept in a large dome structure.

SEC chief executive Chris Miller said Australia had seen a proliferation of battery storage in recent years, but much of it focused on shorter duration technologies, providing two to four hours of energy storage to support the grid during the morning and/or evening peaks.

Energy Dome was founded in Milan in 2020. With projects underway in countries including the US, Italy, Ireland and India, the firm said its global pipeline now exceeds 30GWh including a deal with Google to deploy Energy Dome capacity across its data centre locations worldwide.