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Alabama utility pumps air into a cave?

PostPosted: Sep 9, 2018 8:11 pm
by William Bagwell
Reading a blog by the owner of a solar panel company in Florida. (Not going to link it) One sentence in a long post caught my eye.
"One Alabama utility pumps air into a cave and then brings it out through a turbine engine."

No other details then it jumps to what other utilities are trying for energy storage. Seems a bit odd to me... If true hoping someone here knows more?

Re: Alabama utility pumps air into a cave?

PostPosted: Sep 24, 2018 4:24 pm
by captnemo
Compressed air energy storage(CAES) is the term to search for- there are two major plants that I know of currently one in Germany and the one your article must be talking about in Alabama.
You can read a bit more here:
https://caes.pnnl.gov/
To date, there are two operating CAES plants in the world; a 110 MW plant in McIntosh, Alabama, commissioned in 1991 and a 290 MW plant in Huntorf, Germany built in 1978. Both plants store air underground in excavated salt caverns produced by solution mining.

Re: Alabama utility pumps air into a cave?

PostPosted: Sep 24, 2018 8:02 pm
by William Bagwell
Ah, non cavers confusing mines with caves. :doh: They were doing it in the 80's and I see they still are... Makes a lot more sense than trying to pump air into a real cave. Thanks!