Canadian energy storage developer Hydrostor has announced its intention to build 200MW/1,600MWh compressed air energy storage(CAES) system at the border town of Broken Hill in Australia.
Construction of the project, named Silver City Energy Storage Centre, is likely to begin towards the end of 2024; and Hydrostor hopes it will be up and running by mid 2027. It will be the company’s first large-scale compressed air project. Their small 1.75 MW plant in Goderich, Ontario, has been running since 2019. Last year the Australian government approved funding of A$45M ($28.7M) and Goldman Sachs provided $250M in backing.
The second project will be near Rosamond, Kern County, California. This will have a capacity of 500MW for eight hours.The company intend to begin construction by the end of 2025 and the plant be running in 2030, dependent on a permit from the California Energy Commission.The projected cost of this project is around $1.5 billion.
The two projects would have a combined capacity of 0.9GW
There are three types of compressed air storage: diabatic, adiabatic and isothermal. Hydrostor’s technology is adiabatic – storing the thermal energy generated by compressing the air, which is then used to decompress the air to drive a turbine – thus not needing fossil fuels.
The Silver City plan will see the compressed air be stored 600m underground, with a project area of less than 40 hectares. The life expectancy of the plant is projected to be around 50 years.
