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Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

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Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#21

I knew Danielle Fong from Lightsail Energy, folded in 2016, and at that time compressed air seemed like a great solution especially for LatAm that needed robust low cost batteries for critical infrastructure (like hospitals) on an unreliable power grid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Fong Would be great to see this technology reach maturity!

She's on HN, curious what her thoughts are: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=DaniFong

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#22
post #7

Interesting. There's a good video describing the operation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOWjwwKSR78 After watching it, I now understand that they aren't flooding the entire borehole, but rather are building a smaller high-pressure chamber at the bottom. The chamber is connected to pipes to a surface reservoir. When air is pumped into the chamber, it displaces water up toward the surface. When generating, the…

Totally out of my depth here, but does cooling the gas down have the added benefit that it'll be heated by the earth whilst stored?

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too was wondering that as the ideal gas law states that PV = nRT. When you compress a gas it gets hotter, conversely, allowing it to decompress cools it. I assume they store the heat energy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed-air_energy_storage

Yes, their website says they have a thermal store.

They should do free ice maker on the other end.

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#24
post #5

This brings to mind the other post about the Amish that's on today's front page. I believe the Amish sometimes use compressed air as an alternative form of power.

I read an article in a woodworking magazine about how one Amish woodworking shop was built to avoid using electricity. The whole shop ran off a stationary diesel engine driving a shaft in a floor trench and belt drove the larger stationary machinery like band saws, table saws, planers, drill presses, joiners and so on. But what about hand tools? A large belt driven air compressor off the diesel engine handled a myriad of air power tools like drills, orbital sanders, buffers and all that. Really neat setup.

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#25
I really enjoy learning about quirky ways to "store" energy, there is also one case that allows "storing" of energy by pushing massive concrete blocks uphill and when energy is needed, blocks simply slide down and generate energy. Not sure if this can be called "Storing" though.

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#27
post #7

Interesting. There's a good video describing the operation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOWjwwKSR78 After watching it, I now understand that they aren't flooding the entire borehole, but rather are building a smaller high-pressure chamber at the bottom. The chamber is connected to pipes to a surface reservoir. When air is pumped into the chamber, it displaces water up toward the surface. When generating, the…

I wonder what is the loss/recovery %age.

I don't have specific numbers, but in other batteries of this type, the length of storage time before discharge affects the efficiency. Heat stored from compression is lost over time.

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#28
post #14

Does this technology only work in select places or are underground caverns fairly commonplace?

Appropriate natural caverns do exist, but are not common. One of the main differentiating factor between this approach and others is that they drill a man-made borehole rather than depending on finding a pre-existing cavern.

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#29
post #7

Interesting. There's a good video describing the operation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOWjwwKSR78 After watching it, I now understand that they aren't flooding the entire borehole, but rather are building a smaller high-pressure chamber at the bottom. The chamber is connected to pipes to a surface reservoir. When air is pumped into the chamber, it displaces water up toward the surface. When generating, the…

Totally out of my depth here, but does cooling the gas down have the added benefit that it'll be heated by the earth whilst stored?

[deleted]

Re: Goldman Sachs invests $250M in compressed air energy storage

#30
post #13

[deleted]

Would energy storage not be a good use of that money? Society is facing a large problem: climate change. One way to reduce the impact of climate change is to use renewable energy like solar and wind. Solar and wind have a big problem; they can't be turned on and off. That means to displace fossil fuels, we need to store energy when it's sunny and windy, and release that energy when it's not. Hence, things like compre…

Small nitpick. Wind can be turned off. The turbines can be equipped with brakes to stop power generation in case of oversupply, in addition to other uses.
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