Green Options » compressed air

Storing Renewable Energy in Boxes of Air

Susan Kraemer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:33:55 +0000

Storage is needed to harvest the full yield available from intermittent sources of energy like wind and solar. One of the options is compressed-air storage; till now only possible in underground caverns. But SustainX Energy Solutions; a Dartmouth College start-up that got $4 million in VC funding from Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital this year is working on compressing and storing air in cheap off-the-shelf shipping containers.

Over the next two years SustainX will try to develop a way to cram 4 megawatt-hours worth of stored energy into each 40-foot long container and to reduce the energy that it currently takes to compress and release air by about 70%.

The goal? A renewable energy storage system with the portability and scalability of a battery and the economy and capacity of a cave. Make that a portable cave.

New(ish) Method for Storing Wind Energy Explored

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:52:57 +0000

Recently, MIT discovered a revolutionary method for solar energy storage. And now, less than a month later, a method for wind power storage is being explored.

Earlier today, Public Service Enterprise Group Global announced that it is joining with Michael Nakhamkin to create a company called Energy Storage and Power that will develop new ways to trap wind power in underground reservoirs.

Compressed air storage technology isn’t new, but it has been ignored for many years. Now it’s being rediscovered thanks to the prolific growth of wind turbines and high oil and natural gas prices.

How Solar Panels Could Power 90% of US Transportation

Clayton B. Cornell — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:26:57 +0000

In January, Scientific American writers unleashed an ambitious plan to halt global warming, eliminate our dependence on petroleum and the substantial trade deficit, boost the economy and create 3 million jobs, and brighten the dismal forecasts for the mid twenty-first century.

The plan is conceptually simple but would be substantial to implement:

Construct a 30,000 square mile array of solar panels in the Southwest,
along with concentrated solar power arrays and,
a massive direct-current power transmission backbone to distribute electricity throughout the country.
Excess power produced by the photovoltaic arrays would be distributed and stored as compressed air in below-ground caverns.

Development of such a system could provide almost three-quarters of the nation’s electricity by 2050.
Read more of this story »

Air Car in Showrooms by End of Year

Max Lindberg — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:06:52 +0000

Run your car on compressed air? Drivers in Europe may be doing just that by the end of the year with the air car, according to a report from the BBC…

This story contains additional media. Click here to view the media.

Like to know more about the air car? Here’s their website.