The past and present of compressed air energy storage

What is compressed air energy storage (CAES)?

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is an effective solution for balancing this mismatch and therefore is suitable for use in future electrical systems to achieve a high penetration of renewable energy generation.

How effective are compressed air storage systems?

Overall, the Compressed Air Storage Systems (CAES) provides an effective way of producing energy for the electrical grid. Utilising other renewable sources of energy like wind and/or solar to provide energy to operate the CAES systems seem to be the only cost effective and efficient ways to run them.

Where can compressed air energy be stored?

The number of sites available for compressed air energy storage is higher compared to those of pumped hydro [ , ]. Porous rocks and cavern reservoirs are also ideal storage sites for CAES. Gas storage locations are capable of being used as sites for storage of compressed air .

When was compressed air energy storage invented?

By then the patent application “Means for Storing Fluids for Power Generation” was submitted by F.W. Gay to the US Patent Office . However, until the late 1960s the development of compressed air energy storage (CAES) was pursued neither in science nor in industry.

How to reuse temperature related exergy of compressed air?

The simplest way to reuse the temperature related part of the exergy of the compressed air is to store the hot air itself inside a combined thermal energy and compressed air storage volume (Fig. 18a). Due to the high temperatures already reached at rather low pressure ratios these concepts require highly temperature resistant storage volumes.

How is compressed air stored?

Compressed air storage Compressed air can be stored either at constant volume (isochoric) or at constant pressure (isobaric). In case of constant volume storage, the pressure varies and thus indicates the state of charge. The most common example of isochoric storage is a steel pressure vessel or, at large scale, a salt cavern.