Energy Dome and New Era Energy & Digital (NUAI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to assess deploying Energy Dome’s CO2 Battery Plus energy storage technology at NUAI’s Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC) site in Odessa, Texas. The companies say the goal is to support “time-to-power,” improve operational flexibility, and reduce emissions for AI and data center workloads at a planned 1 GW+ AI-optimized data center campus.
Under the MOU framework, the parties will evaluate how Energy Dome’s proprietary technology—based on its patented CO2 Battery system—could support NUAI’s planned “large-scale power capacity” deployment at TCDC. The announcement calls out priorities that will be familiar to data center power teams: speeding power availability, reducing reliance on grid interconnection timelines, maintaining the availability requirements of mission-critical operations, and supporting lower-emissions power generation.
Energy Dome positions CO2 Battery Plus as an energy storage system designed to integrate with gas-fired generation via waste heat recovery. In the configuration described in the release, CO2 Battery Plus is deployed alongside Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs) and uses turbine exhaust heat during discharge. Energy Dome says this approach can “greatly improve efficiency,” enable “combined-cycle-like performance,” and be more cost-efficient compared to storing heat from the charging phase in a dedicated thermal storage system (the “traditional CO2 Battery configuration” described in the announcement).
The company describes three operating modes. In “Charge Mode,” electricity is used to compress gaseous CO2 and store it in liquid form in standard pressure vessels. In “Discharge Mode (SuperBoost),” the liquid CO2 is evaporated and heated using OCGT exhaust, driving an expander and “thereby running the CO2 Battery turbine,” which Energy Dome says can provide additional power “comparable to that of an additional gas turbine of the same type,” claiming it can more than double output (>100%). In “Generation Mode (Boost),” the compressor and turbine run simultaneously in a closed cycle with no net mass transfer between gas and liquid storage, and Energy Dome claims this can increase net gas turbine power output by up to 25%.
“The ability to capture waste heat and flexibly dispatch stored energy provides additional operational flexibility for AI workloads,” said Charlie Nelson, President and Chief Operating Officer at NUAI, adding that NUAI is scaling “behind-the-meter power infrastructure” at TCDC and evaluating CO2 Battery Plus for “lowering delivered energy costs,” managing variability “between data center load profiles and our on-site generation fleet,” and reducing carbon intensity.
Claudio Spadacini, Founder and CEO of Energy Dome, said the collaboration targets “reliable, always-available power for data centers and the grid” and described the technology as “purpose-built for next-generation AI infrastructure.”
NUAI said it is developing Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC), a 438 acre, multi-phase campus in Ector County outside Odessa, with anticipated capacity “scaling to 1+ gigawatt over time.”
Source: Energy Dome
