The large squeeze
Let’s return to highschool physics another time for one more idea: stress. In case you squeeze one thing right into a smaller house, you’re elevating the stress.
Turning that stress into usable power is the thought behind compressed-air power storage. All you want is an underground salt cavern. Once you’ve acquired electrical energy you’ll want to use, you possibly can run pumps to push air contained in the cavern. Then, when you’ll want to get power out, simply launch a valve and let the escaping air spin a turbine to generate electrical energy once more.
There are solely a few these services working worldwide, one in Germany and one other in Alabama. Up to now, they’ve been tied up with fossil fuels, since they often work alongside natural-gas energy crops. However now firms wish to reimagine compressed-air storage, utilizing it for renewables and increasing the place it may be used.
Earlier this yr, native governments in California signed contracts with Hydrostor, which is constructing what could be the world’s largest compressed-air storage facility. As a substitute of counting on pure geological circumstances, Hydrostor will drill three shafts deep into the earth to retailer the compressed air.
It’s a billion-dollar mission, and it may very well be working as quickly as 2028 to retailer power and assist easy out California’s grid utilizing nothing however air.
Different teams wish to take a special strategy to the identical idea. Power Dome, an Italian startup, desires to compress carbon dioxide as an alternative of air to retailer power. This wouldn’t require massive underground storage caverns in any respect—for extra on the main points right here, take a look at my story from final yr on Power Dome.
Earth to battery
Some teams are additionally trying to pair these new approaches to power storage with efforts to generate electrical energy, making new energy crops extra versatile.
