LightSail Energy's CAES

One of the CAES systems that most recently caught my attention is LightSail Energy’s Compressed Air Energy Storage system.  LightSail Energy promises a 250 kW CAES device that produces 1000 kWh of energy at 70% round trip efficiency in a device that fits into a shipping container. Of course like all new energy storage technologies a major determinant of success is price. If LightSail Energy’s device hits the market at a very competitive price I feel that this combined with the other favorable characteristics will make their device very competitive in the market.

Beyond the technology, LightSail Energy has garnered media attention because of their chief scientist and co-founder, Danielle Fong. She has achieved great notoriety not only through the innovative design of LightSail Energy’s CAES device and her exceptional academic achievements ( at 17 she graduated with first class honors in computer science and physics from Dalhousie University ) but also through her contributions to online publications such as her blog (Insights by Danielle Fong) and Women 2.0. In these blogs she discusses various topics ranging from green technology to entrepreneurship. Danielle Fong has achieved the triple crown of the 'young guns to watch' lists by being featured in Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 in the energy category, MIT’s Technology Reviews 35 Innovators Under 35 and CNN Money’s 40 under 40: One’s to Watch (amongst many other publications). Over a decade past the internet boom (and bust) that featured many young stars, at 26, she is at the leading edge of what will hopefully be a greater, more long lasting wave of innovation in the energy market. Not just because of her age but also because of her ideas, she’ll likely be mentioned in these ## under ## articles for quite some time.

Figure 1. showing the filament wound storage tanks for LightSail Energy's CAES system  (LightSail Energy, 2013).

In Lightsail Energy’s proposed CAES system, water is sprayed into the air during compression to absorb heat. The mixture of water and air is then sent through an air and water separator storing cool dry air in one storage tank and heated water into another. During discharge, the heated water is sprayed back into the expanding air. Though the overall efficiency of the CAES Energy Storage Device is listed on the website at 70%, it is the uncommonly high round trip thermodynamic efficiency (listed at 90%) that is predicted to bring down the cost of the overall device by generating more power from a machine that more commonly operates at a lower thermodynamic efficiency (LightSail Energy, 2013). Along with this unique approach to managing the heat of compression, Lightsail Energy has also identified a relatively inexpensive compound that can be used to manufacture filament wound tanks that could store bulk quantities of air in a shipping container form factor (Lightsail Energy, 2012). This compact design would make the Lightsail Energy CAES unit very modular and also relieve many of the siting concerns with other designs. This design shows such promise that Lightsail energy, in November 2012, secured $37.3 million in funding from prominent investors such as PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Microsoft founder Bill Gates (Metz, 2012).

Works Cited

Lightsail Energy. (2012). Technology. Retrieved January 14, 2013, from Lightsail Energy: http://lightsailenergy.com/tech.html

LightSail Energy. (2013). Our Approach. Retrieved October 14, 2013, from www.lightsail.com: http://www.lightsail.com/

Metz, R. (2012, November 5). LightSail Energy Snags $37M in Funding. Retrieved January 14, 2013, from MIT Technology Review: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/506926/lightsail-energy-snags-37m-in-funding/