compressed air energy storage for wind farms

[tevarin]

http://www.isepa.com/index.aspRead more... )

Comments

[anonymous]

Meh. I recall that someone has actually built energy storage using lots of little underground water tanks (basically deep insulated boreholes). But if you're going to have it hooked up to a whole windfarm instead of just one house or something, I'd think that a more industrial approach would work better than hoping for favorable ground conditions and no hidden underground leakage. A vat of molten salt perhaps?

--josh

[tevarin]

I like molten salt baths from my ion exchange days. Underground compressed air storage might have an edge for sheer quantity of stored energy. Vat costs would scale with the amount of energy storage needed, while a single compressor and borehole might access whole cubic miles of porous rock. On the other hand, you'd have to find a rock layer that matches your predicted energy needs, which could change..

[metahoss]

we could just use the surplus wind power for electric cars...