BOTTLING WIND

NewEnergyNews first looked at this project in January: WIND STORAGE?

American Electric Power Co. and Siemens Wind Power are testing 1+ megawatt batteries the size of a moving van using expensive, exotic chemicals. They might store the energy some hours. The project described below will reportedly hold 20 weeks of energy.

Still to be studied: Could the same concept be used to store electricity generated in huge concentrating solar installations? What kind of costs are involved?

Catching The Wind In A Bottle; A group of Midwest utilities is building a plant that will store excess wind power under ground
Adam Aston, October 8, 2007 (BusinessWeek)

WHO
Kent Holst, development director, Iowa Stored Energy Park; TXU Corp & Shell WindEnergy; Garth Corey, stored-energy expert, Sandia National Labs

click to enlarge

WHAT
- The Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) project: To overcome the single biggest objection to wind energy, its intermittency, the Iowa Stored Energy Park would use of wind turbines or natural gas to drive compressors that pump air into deep sandstone formations where it can be held and then released for energy on demand.
- TXU and Shell WindEnergy are developing a CAES system for storage in salt domes.
- 85% of the US has geologic formations potentially capable of such storage.

WHEN
The Iowa Stored Energy Park was begun in 2003, is due online in 2011.

WHERE
- The sandstone formations are geologic structures 3000 feet below the earth’s surface near Dallas Center, Iowa.
- 100 municipal utilities in Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas have helped fund the experimental project.
- The TXU/Shell WindEnergyCAES project will be near their 3000 megawatt facility in West Texas.
- Projects are also being considered for New Mexico and the Gulf Coast.

WHY
- The Iowa Stored Energy Park will have a 268 megawatt capacity.
- Making the energy available on demand means it can be sold at times of peak use, earning more.
- $200 million in funding from Department of Energy and municipal utilities

Another view of the concept. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
Garth Corey, Sandia: "Near term, it has the best chance of being adapted by the utilities…"