Efficiency-Driven Iterative Model for Underwater Compressed Air Energy Storage (UW-CAES)

Luca Cacciali (), Lorenzo Battisti () and Davide Occello
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Luca Cacciali: Fluid Machinery Laboratory, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, 38123 Trento, Italy
Lorenzo Battisti: Fluid Machinery Laboratory, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, 38123 Trento, Italy
Davide Occello: Fluid Machinery Laboratory, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, 38123 Trento, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-17

Abstract: The competitiveness of large-scale offshore wind parks is influenced by the intermittent power generation of wind turbines, which impacts network service costs such as reserve requirements, capacity credit, and system inertia. Buffer power plants smooth the peaks in power generation, distribute electric power when the wind is absent or insufficient, and improve the capacity factor of wind parks and their profitability. By substituting the variable pressure storage with an underwater variable volume air reservoir and reducing the wastage of compression heat using liquid Thermal Energy Storage (TES), which eliminates the combustor, the plant design allows overcoming the most common drawbacks of CAES plants. Underwater Compressed Air Energy Storage (UW-CAES) plants are investigated with a thermodynamic model to drive the power plant design toward efficiency maximization. Functional maps, constrained on the plant pressure ratio and the number of compressor/turbine phases with inter-refrigerated/inter-heating phases, are drawn by solving the model iteratively for the heat exchangers’ effectiveness to meet the target turbine discharge temperature, selected in advance to avoid unfeasible mathematical solutions.

Keywords: compressed air energy storage; thermal energy storage; UW-CAES; A-CAES; TES; offshore wind; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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