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The world's only CAES technology retro-fittable to suitably located power stations, re-lifing stranded assets for the energy transition, eventually decarbonising. 60% round-trip.
About
CCGT CAES is Storelectric's own technology and is diabatic, meaning that it burns gas during regeneration. It has a slightly lower round trip efficiency (55-60% for FOAK) and emissions slightly over half that of a similarly sized CCGT. It is cheaper to build and can be retro-fitted to existing power stations (both CCGT and OCGT) provided they are over the right geology, and is therefore an ideal technology for the transitional period to a zero-carbon grid. CCGT CAES is a modification of a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine drawing a substantial portion of its power from compressed air, during the generation cycle. The modifications are minimal and all use exceedingly well known and well proven technology, and as such have the lowest technical risk offered by Storelectric. As such it is similar to SmartCAES, Huntorf and McIntosh; however, unlike these plants Storelectric’s CCGT CAES solution utilises a standard gas turbine and not one stripped of its compressor stage, this enables the concept to be offered behind the full gas turbine (GT) product line of any GT OEM and, unlike the existing CAES plants, not fixed to a single output class. It reduces gas burn (and hence emissions) by 40-50% and can be retro-fitted to existing CCGT power stations near the right geology. It has lower technical risks than TES, and lower costs, but will be challenged in the future by ever tighter emissions limits. In future, Storelectric will develop hybrid versions of TES CAES and CCGT CAES systems to optimise them for each load case, location and regulatory regime. We will also work on a de-carbonised version of CCGT CAES and on using different geologies for air storage.
Key Benefits
Enables renewables to power the grid The world's two most cost-effective large-scale long-duration electricity storage Potential locations world-wide Full range of balancing and ancillary services Delivering real inertia, real reactive power / load Potential market in 3 phases, the first and smallest of which is ~$1trn capex, ~$10trn p.a. opex Subsidy-free if in a moderately level regulatory playing field, when connected to grids Additional synergies, and cost reductions if installed in conjunction with large renewable generation or interconnectors Enables city- and region-sized "island" grids (including industry and infrastructure) to be powered by renewables Enables most countries to de-carbonise without any additional energy-system costs Enables oil states to displace hydrocarbon self-consumption Enables developing-world countries to develop with minimal emissions With large-scale long-duration storage like ours, renewables can power the world cost-effectively; without us, they can't
Applications
Stand-alone, grid connected Island-grid connected Turns intermittency into dispatchable (on-demand) and baseload Enables existing power stations of all types to operate optimally while absorbing peaks and troughs in demand Connected to renewable generation (halves grid connection size or better, increases the value of electricity generated by turning intermittency into dispatchability) Increases the volume of electricity on interconnectors by turning variable into baseload and back again Agnostic as to the source of the electrons Ideal not only for a renewable future but also for the energy transition