Development prospects of air compression energy storage

What is compressed air energy storage?

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is one of the many energy storage options that can store electric energy in the form of potential energy (compressed air) and can be deployed near central power plants or distribution centers. In response to demand, the stored energy can be discharged by expanding the stored air with a turboexpander generator.

Is there a future for compressed air storage?

There are two large scale compressed air storage plants are in operation and their success encourages the technology development. A number of pilot projects in building new generation of CAES are on-going. All the projects have demonstrated the difficulties in financial investment.

Why does compressed air storage system need to be improved?

However, due to the characteristics of compressed air storage system, the heating and cooling energy can not be constantly produced. So the system needs to be improved to meet the continuous heating / cooling requirements of users.

Can compressed air energy storage improve the profitability of existing power plants?

Linden Svd, Patel M. New compressed air energy storage concept improves the profitability of existing simple cycle, combined cycle, wind energy, and landfill gas power plants. In: Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2004: Power for Land, Sea, and Air; 2004 Jun 14–17; Vienna, Austria. ASME; 2004. p. 103–10. F. He, Y. Xu, X. Zhang, C. Liu, H. Chen

How can compressed air energy storage improve the stability of China's power grid?

The intermittent nature of renewable energy poses challenges to the stability of the existing power grid. Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) that stores energy in the form of high-pressure air has the potential to deal with the unstable supply of renewable energy at large scale in China.

What is diabatic compressed air energy storage (D-CAES)?

Since the compression heat is wasted by air cooling, and fuel combustion is required to heat the compressed air at the inlet of the expander, it is defined as diabatic compressed air energy storage (D-CAES). The cycle efficiency of D-CAES is around 50% . Fig. 1. Different types of CAES (a) diabatic CAES and (b) adiabatic CAES.