Energy capacity in China has increased exponentially in recent years. However, the Asian giant had an outstanding account with storage, but that debt has now been settled in a big way.
The project. Huaneng Group has developed the second phase of compressed air energy storage (CAES) in Jintan salt cavern in Changzhou, Jiangsu province. Furthermore, the company has indicated that it is the first largest industrial system in the world.
The second phase. This second stage will have two complementary CAES units of 350 MW each. These units will store up to 1.2 million cubic meters of air, which is equivalent to 2.8 GWh of electricity when fully charged. Additionally, this technology is designed to operate for 330 charge and discharge cycles per year.
In the first phase of the project they already installed a small 60 MW unit, which allowed them to improve the design. In this way, they have achieved that the storage system does not need external fuel. This is achieved by storing and reusing the heat generated during the air compression process, eliminating carbon emissions and achieving an efficiency greater than 60%. In addition, they have included a system that allows you to start in just five minutes, before 20 were necessary.
Other forms of storage. China has a peculiarity: doing everything in a big way, from the installation of a renewable system as energy capacity to the development of an offshore wind turbine, to give some examples. For this reason, in its search to store all the energy generated, it has resorted to different projects such as the use of a lake, a building or the largest liquid battery in the world, among others.
The salt cave. The CAES being developed by China is very interesting because salt caverns are also a solution for storing large amounts of hydrogen. A study has suggested that it is an economical method and may be beneficial for the future of hydrogen. In fact, several European countries are already exploring this technique for the distribution of this gas.
In the latest reports from the International Energy Agency, it has been revealed that this year China closes with 30% more coal demand than the rest of the countries combined. For this reason, projects like Jintan’s mark a significant change for the Asian country in its race towards renewables.
Image | Jintan Project
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