A first-of-its-kind energy storage system is coming to Wisconsin; it could serve as a model for others

This is a demonstration facility in Italy. Wisconsin's dome will
be a larger version. (Alliant Energy courtesy photo via WPR)

Storing carbon dioxide to use later as energy is environmentally responsible, but can it be done on a larger scale? It can. Columbia County, Wisconsin, will house a first-of-its-kind energy storage system that "could serve as a blueprint for wide-scale deployment across the country," reports Joe Schulz of Wisconsin Public Radio. "Alliant Energy announced it received a $30 million federal grant for a 200-megawatt-hour storage system. . . . According to the Department of Energy, the project would be the first to demonstrate the carbon dioxide-based energy storage system at a commercial scale."

Schultz explains, "The Columbia Energy Storage Project will offer 10 hours of energy storage capacity by compressing carbon dioxide, or CO2, gas into a liquid, Alliant said. When energy is needed, the system converts the liquid into gas to power a turbine that generates electricity. The gas will be stored in what utility officials call an 'energy dome.'"

Columbia County, Wisconsin
(Wikipedia map)

The energy dome does not rely on wind or sun to provide power. Mark Anderson, director of the Thermal-Hydraulics Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said, "Energy storage systems will continue to be needed as clean energy sources become more widely used," Schultz reports. 

The project is expected to be fully operational by 2026, when the current coal-fired Alliant Columbia Energy plant is scheduled for retirement. "Mike Bremel, director of engineering and customer solutions for Alliant, said the retirement of the coal facility is one of the reasons the utility chose Columbia County to host the storage facility." Bremel told Schultz: "[We are] optimizing the use of that location and the access to the transmission grid for storage of the renewable energy, so it's consistent with our transition from coal to renewable energy."