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How blowing hot air propelled Chinese scientists to energy storage breakthrough
- Recent test using compressed air at energy storage site achieved record efficiency
- Achievement comes as China moves to take global lead in advanced energy storage systems
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Zhang Tongin Beijing
A team of Chinese researchers has made a breakthrough in improving the storage efficiency of renewable energy. The technological achievement was made at the world’s largest advanced compressed air energy storage (CAES) system, located in Hebei province.
The 100-megawatt facility achieved a record in efficiency during a recent test run, and will be put into commercial operation by the end of this year, according to an announcement on Tuesday on the website of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics (IET), Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The project is being led by the same team that designed the world’s first 1.5MW and 10MW national CAES demonstration systems.
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Energy storage systems are widely used to collect energy generated from solar panels and wind farms, or to balance the loads of an electrical grid. The systems store energy during periods of low demand and release it during peak load periods.
Typical energy storage systems have included mainstream pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), which use water, and the popular battery energy storage (BESS) system, which rely on various types of batteries. The CAES system uses compressed air as a working medium.
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