Adiabatic CAES

Recent proposals seek to improve on the traditional design of CAES units to overcome many of the limitations associated with traditional CAES. The following are examples of some of these innovative proposals:

ADELE Adiabatic CAES – seeks to improve on traditional CAES by storing the heat generated when the air is compressed, in large well insulated heat accumulators before the air is stored in underground salt caverns. During discharge the air passes back through the heat accumulators for reheating before powering the turbines (Figure 1). This eliminates the need to use natural gas to heat the expanding air, making the ADELE unit more of a pure, zero emissions, energy storage unit. As a joint effort between RWE, General Electric, Zueblin, and the German Aerospace Center, $13.2 million has been raised with the plan of constructing in 2013, a 90 MW, 360 MWh, demonstration at Stassfurt in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany (RWE Power AG, 2010).

Figure 1 showing the ADELE Adiabatic CAES (RWE Power AG, 2010).

Works Cited

RWE Power AG. (2010). ADELE – ADIABATIC COMPRESSED-AIR ENERGY STORAGE FOR ELECTRICITY SUPPLY. Cologne, Germany: RWE Power AG.