Oman is piloting a new kind of battery that stores energy using carbon dioxide instead of lithium, and it could change how the GCC keeps the lights on when the sun isn’t shining. Nama Power & Water Procurement Company, the country’s main power buyer, is pushing ahead with plans for a CO2 battery storage pilot called DOME, marking one of the first projects of its kind in the region.
How does a CO2 battery actually work, and why Oman?
The idea sounds futuristic, but the science is fairly simple. Electricity is used to liquefy carbon dioxide, which is then stored. When power is needed, the CO2 is released through a turbine, turning back into gas and spinning the turbine to generate electricity. It’s a closed loop, meaning the same CO2 gets reused again and again rather than released into the atmosphere.
This matters because storing renewable energy is one of the biggest headaches for countries betting big on solar power, including across the GCC. Solar panels only produce electricity during the day, but demand often peaks in the evening. Batteries that can store large amounts of energy for long periods, known as long-duration energy storage, are seen as a key missing piece. Lithium batteries work well for short bursts, but they’re expensive and less suited for storing power over many hours. A CO2 battery could offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative, and Oman wants to find out if it actually works at scale.
According to a source familiar with the plans, Nama PWP recently took the advisory procurement to market through a request for expressions of interest, with submissions due on 25 September. The scope covers advisers across legal, technical, and financial and commercial workstreams, meaning the company is lining up experts to help structure, finance and build the project properly before committing serious money to it.
What this means for Oman’s energy sandbox, and the wider GCC
The project is being treated as a pilot, a smaller-scale test before any full rollout. It’s expected to be considered under the Authority for Public Services Regulation’s sandbox framework, which gives companies a controlled environment to trial new energy technologies and business models without the usual regulatory hurdles. Think of it as a safe testing ground where mistakes can be caught early, before a technology is deployed across the national grid.
For Oman, this fits into a broader push to diversify its energy mix and reduce reliance on fossil fuels for power generation. The Sultanate has been investing heavily in renewables and green hydrogen in recent years, and long-duration storage is the natural next step if solar and wind are going to play a bigger role in daily electricity supply.
For the rest of the GCC, the pilot is worth watching closely. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are all racing to scale up renewable energy capacity, and all face the same storage challenge Oman is trying to solve. If the DOME project proves that CO2 batteries can reliably store power at a reasonable cost, it could open the door for similar projects across the region. Investors and engineering firms tracking innovation news in the energy sector will likely be paying close attention to how this pilot develops, since successful long-duration storage technology could eventually attract serious interest from utilities well beyond Oman’s borders.
What happens next depends on the advisers Nama PWP brings on board and how quickly the technical, legal and financial groundwork gets done. If the pilot moves from paper to construction, it would mark a real milestone for long-duration energy storage in the Gulf, a technology many believe will be essential as the region pushes further into solar and wind power. For now, all eyes are on Muscat, as reported by MEED.
