Ireland faces challenges in maintaining a stable electrical grid due to limited renewable resources and reliance on imported energy. To decarbonize the grid, significant energy storage is required, with projections showing a need for 160 GWh of storage and 10 GW of power by 2035. While lithium batteries are currently the primary storage technology, long-duration energy storage (LDES) systems like Energy Dome’s CO2-based system are being explored to meet the growing storage demands.
The next technology is Form Energy’s iron-air battery, which stores energy by rusting iron and can be reversed by running electricity back into the battery. Unlike Energy Dome, Form Energy’s battery has a lower round-trip efficiency of around 45% and no operational sites yet, but they are ramping up production and have signed many deals. Form Energy’s battery will store 1 GWh, five times what the Energy Dome site will store, and a facility in Minnesota will be able to store 30 GWh.
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My videos referenced in this video
Building an Electrical Bridge from Ireland to France: The Celtic Connector
https://youtu.be/zST1lWz85Eg
Dunkelflaute: How to solve the serious problem with the funny name
https://youtu.be/iM_n0Ayskns
Fight the Hype: Decarbonization Readiness Levels
https://youtu.be/HDGVYpjYFGA
Energy Dome: An update of an interesting long-duration storage company from a field in Sardinia
https://youtu.be/2Xe6HTcexck
@energydome291
Why aren’t we using the best technology to enhance our grid?
https://youtu.be/oqZ1a3nCWuM
Silvermines pumped hydro
https://www.silvermineshydro.ie/about/our-progress
Form Energy and FuturEnergy Ireland Announce Agreement To Deploy First Iron-Air Battery Storage Project In Ireland
https://formenergy.com › form-energy-and-futurenergy...
@formenergyinc
Google and Energy Dome Advance Multi-Continent Energy - Storage Buildout with First Bilateral Project in Ireland
https://energydome.com/google-and-energy-dome-advance-multi-continent-energy-storage-buildout-with-first-bilateral-project-in-ireland/
Utility-scale battery project costs, VRE share and utility-scale battery storage capacity relative to peak load, by region, 2019-2024
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/utility-scale-battery-project-costs-vre-share-and-utility-scale-battery-storage-capacity-relative-to-peak-load-by-region-2019-2024
Powering Ireland’s Energy Future
https://www.iea.org/reports/powering-irelands-energy-future/executive-summary
Energy Storage Ireland Pipeline Survey 2025
https://www.energystorageireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ESIPipelineSurveyResults2025ForPublication.pdf
Silvermines hydro
https://www.silvermineshydro.ie
Energy firm unveils €2bn Carlow storage project
https://www.rte.ie/news/2026/0608/1577361-energy-firm-unveils-2bn-carlow-storage-project/
How cheap is battery storage?
https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/12/How-cheap-is-battery-storage.pdf
List of pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listofpumped-storagehydroelectricpower_stations
https://www.energystorageireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AFRYESIMoneySaverReportv600-1.pdf
Timestamps
Energy Storage in Ireland 0:00
Chapter 1: How much storage do we need 1:40
Chapter 2: Lithium Batteries 4:05
Chapter 3: Energy Dome 6:00
Chapter 4: Form Energy 8:26
Chapter 5: Silvermines 10:00
Chapter 6: Rathrush Green Energy Park 11:30
Epilogue 12:49
Channel: Decarbonize!
Published: 2026-07-19
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCahI1S9oX0