Pacific Gas & Electric is stepping into high-risk energy experimenting with the government go-ahead to spend $50 million on the first phase of a compressed air energy storage demonstration project.
Compressed air energy storage is not exactly a new technology, but it has yet to be widely deployed because no one quite knows how it would work at a large scale.
The basic idea is this: Excess energy from a power plant or renewable energy source is used to run air compressors that pump air into either storage tanks or naturally occurring caverns underground, where it is stored under pressure. When electricity is needed, the air is expanded via gas turbines, generating energy.
It’s not a completely closed loop, however. Jim Gardner of Boise State University’s Office of Energy Research, Policy and Campus Sustainability notes that some additional energy (typically natural gas) is used during the expansion process to ensure that maximum energy is obtained from the compressed air. By some estimates, 1 kilowatt-hour worth of natural gas will be needed for every 3 kWh generated from a CAES system.
“As is the case with any energy conversion, certain losses are inevitable,” Gardner says. “Less energy eventually makes it to the grid if it passes through the CAES system than in a similar system without storage.”
In the best-case scenario, it’s a way to deal with the intermittency of renewable energy sources by storing excess energy for later use via a technology that is available today. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) calls CAES the only energy storage option, apart from pumped hydro, that is available now and can store large amounts of energy and release it over long periods of time — both of which are necessary if you’re looking at energy storage for the electrical grid.
Still, if fossil fuels are necessary to make that happen, it sounds like the energy equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
In the worst-case, CAES a ticking time bomb that no one wants in their back yard. Compressed air energy storage faces similar obstacles to carbon sequestration in that finding a safe place to store high-pressure air isn’t exactly easy, despite the fact that, according to recent research by EPRI, 80 percent of U.S. land has geology suitable for underground storage.
Because of the risks involved, it can take several years to find, regulate and build a compressed air site, according to Annabelle Louie, who works in PG&E’s Emerging Clean Technology Policy department.
Nonetheless, PG&E has been talking excitedly about the potential of compressed air for about a year now. At a conference on energy storage in May, Louie announced to a crowd of journalists and energy policy experts that the Northern California utility was actively pursuing funding for a project because “even a project that is started today won’t be fully functional for several years.” She noted that there had been little private investment in compressed air energy storage.
According to Marianne Wu, a venture capitalist and partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, who also spoke at the conference, it’s not just compressed air that hasn’t managed to attract a piece of the last couple years’ of major venture investment in cleantech.
“The energy market is still very immature, especially when compared to other areas of cleantech such as solar,” Wu said.
To date, only a handful of compressed air energy storage facilities have been built — in Germany, Alabama and Iowa.
PG&E’s project was only possible with government funding. The utility was awarded $24.9 million in matching funds from the Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in November, and it won approval from the California Public Utilities Commission a week ago to match. The money goes for only phase 1, which includes planning and design, to determine whether the rest of the project continues.
The Kern County, Calif., project that PG&E is about to embark on will be designed to store enough air to deliver 300 megawatts for up to 10 hours when it’s completed five years from now. By that time, energy storage might be the next smart grid, attracting venture investors from all over the world.
This project should help determine if compressed air energy storage is worth the investment or if it is just a bunch of hot air.
See also:
Electric Energy Storage: Digging the Foundations (Part I)
Electric Energy Storage: Digging the Foundations (Part II)
Who’s Responsible If a CO2 Storage Site Leaks?
Fighting Climate Change at Nanoscale
