Ndrc compressed air energy storage project

What is a compressed air energy storage project?

A compressed air energy storage (CAES) project in Hubei, China, has come online, with 300MW/1,500MWh of capacity. The 5-hour duration project, called Hubei Yingchang, was built in two years with a total investment of CNY1.95 billion (US$270 million) and uses abandoned salt mines in the Yingcheng area of Hubei, China’s sixth-most populous province.

What is CAES (compressed air energy storage)?

Recently, a major breakthrough has been made in the field of research and development of the Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) system in China, which is the completion of integration test on the world-first 300MW expander of advanced CAES system marking the smooth transition from development to production.

What is advanced compressed air energy storage (a-CAES)?

They will run on an updated version of the technology called advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES). A-CAES uses surplus electricity from the grid or renewable sources to run an air compressor.

How efficient is a compressed air storage system?

This could prove to be key; compressed air storage systems have typically offered round-trip efficiencies between 40-52 percent, and Quartz is reporting more like 60 percent for this system. Hydrostor’s A-CAES also makes use of a closed-loop reservoir to maintain the system at a constant pressure during operation.

Is compressed air energy storage a viable alternative to pumped hydro?

Another technology that's been in use for decades is compressed air energy storage (CAES), which can store energy on a grid scale and is billed as having the reliability of pumped hydro, without the same constraints on where you can build it.

What are the main components of a compressed air system?

The largest component in such systems is the storage medium for the compressed air. This means that higher pressure storage enables reduced volume and higher energy density.