East Texas Getting Compressed Air Energy Storage Plant 248
First time accepted submitter transporter_ii writes "A compressed air energy storage (CAES) plant was first built in Germany in 1978, but East Texas will be the site of one of the world's first modern CAES plants. How does it work? A CAES power generation facility uses electric motor-driven compressors (generated by natural gas generators) to inject air into an underground storage cavern and later releases the compressed air to turn turbines and generate electricity back onto the grid, according to the plants owner. The location near Palestine, Texas was selected because of its large salt dome, which will be used to store the compressed air. The plant is estimated to cost $350 million-plus, and will create about 20 to 25 permanent jobs."
Efficiency? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anybody knows how efficient is that? As compared with storage in water reservoirs for example?
Re:Efficiency? (Score:1, Interesting)
Terrible.
Hydraulically you are looking at around 85 percent for pumping and 90- percent for recovery.
Compressed air is probably 75 percent of that.
Re:20 perm jobs? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not a job creation scheme, it's supposed to make money for some power company. The jobs are being mentioned to make the locals feel better about having this thing nearby.
Yeah, because what could possibly go wrong with a bunch of high-pressure air pumped into an underground cavern?
Think of the jobs... Forget Lake Peigneur [wikipedia.org].