Illustration of air energy storage scale

What is compressed air energy storage?

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is one of the most promising mature electrical energy storage technologies. CAES in combination with renewable energy generators connected to the main grid or installed at isolated loads (remote areas for example) are a viable alternative to others energy storage technologies.

Can compressed air be used for large scale energy storage?

Even with potential safety concerns such as vessel ruptures or overheating, the storage of compressed air does not appear to be such an unreasonable method for large scale energy storage given the obvious abundance of air and relatively large amount of underground space available for storage.

How can energy be stored on a large scale?

Briefly, two other potential ways to store energy on a large scale are flywheels and a smart grid. The concept behind flywheels is fairly simple in that it is just the conversion of electrical energy to rotational kinetic energy for storage and then conversion back to electrical energy using a generator for extraction.

What are some examples of energy storage systems?

Flywheel, hydrogen, pumped hydro, compressed air energy storage (CAES), capacitors, batteries, and superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), are some examples of available energy storage systems . Among all the ESS, CAES are considered as having reached technical maturity.

What is a large scale storage method?

In contrast to compressed air storage, a fairly mature and widely-used large scale storage method involves pumping water from lower elevations to higher elevations. This practice is currently the most frequently used way of storing electricity, accounting for over 129 GW worldwide.

How is energy stored in a CAES plant?

Although only two large-scale CAES plants are presently operational, energy is stored in the form of compressed air in a vast number of situations and the basic technologies of air compression and expansion are very familiar.