A compressed air energy storage (CAES) plant using two underground salt caverns in Yingcheng city in central China’s Hubei Province was successfully connected to the power grid on Thursday, reaching full capacity. and marking the official start of the plant’s commercial operations.
The project uses caves in an abandoned salt mine, around 500 meters underground, as a gas storage facility. This approach creates a super “energy bank”, with a unit output of up to 300 MW and storage capacity of 1,500 MWh. The system’s conversion efficiency is 70%, according to China Energy Digital Technology Group, one of the project’s main investors.
The single-unit power, energy storage capacity and conversion efficiency of this project rank first worldwide among CAES plants with similar salt caverns, the company said.
This plant can store energy for up to eight hours and release energy for five hours every day. It generates an annual average of approximately 500 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, which can meet the annual energy demands of 750,000 residents, according to the company.
Source: https://www.chinahoje.net/china-conecta-maior-usina-de-energia-por-ar-comprimido-do-mundo-a-rede-eletrica/
