compressed air energy storage for wind farms
http://www.isepa.com/index.asp
This is a potentially cool idea, analogous to pumped storage for hydroelectric plants but using compressed air instead of water pumped into a reservoir.
On the one hand, the applications seem kind of limited. It's only worthwhile to store the energy as compressed air when electrical demand is low and winds are high. There's likely some efficiency loss in the compressor. You have to have a buried layer of porous rock available. And getting the energy out requires a separate turbine and perhaps a fuel source (though a small one).
But those conditions seem doable in the rural midwest.
I wonder about side effects. If your buried porous layer is deep enough, it will be hot. You could get a sort of geothermal heating advantage, adding to the pressure. How impermeable are the layers surrounding the porous rock? There might be leakage losses.
And how stable is the porous layer? Will pressure fluctuations risk a collapse, potentially dropping the power plant into a large sinkhole?
This is a potentially cool idea, analogous to pumped storage for hydroelectric plants but using compressed air instead of water pumped into a reservoir.
On the one hand, the applications seem kind of limited. It's only worthwhile to store the energy as compressed air when electrical demand is low and winds are high. There's likely some efficiency loss in the compressor. You have to have a buried layer of porous rock available. And getting the energy out requires a separate turbine and perhaps a fuel source (though a small one).
But those conditions seem doable in the rural midwest.
I wonder about side effects. If your buried porous layer is deep enough, it will be hot. You could get a sort of geothermal heating advantage, adding to the pressure. How impermeable are the layers surrounding the porous rock? There might be leakage losses.
And how stable is the porous layer? Will pressure fluctuations risk a collapse, potentially dropping the power plant into a large sinkhole?