Storing electricity safely, efficiently and in large amounts – that is one of the greatest challenges for the power supply of the future. RWE Power, General Electric, Züblin and DLR are facing this task in the ADELE project.  The idea behind Adiabatic CAES for the electricity supply is to compress air at times of high electricity availability, to place the resulting heat in an interim heat-storage device and to inject the air into subterranean caverns.  When electricity demand rises, this compressed air can be used to generate power in a turbine – while recovering the heat.

This adiabatic process, in which the heat of the compressed air is not lost, but remains in the process for use in power generation, differs from existing compressed-air storage facilities, above all when it comes to the much higher efficiencies (approx. 70%). Also, the heating process no longer uses natural gas. With a feasibility study the project partners have laid the basis for the development programme, which is starting now.

The aim is to erect a first demonstration plant after 2013 with a storage capacity of 360 megawatt hours and an electric output of up to 360 MW.  This enables ADELE to provide substitute capacity at extremely short notice and replace 50 ultra-modern wind turbines for a period of four hours.  Altogether, the parties involved in the project are making available € 12 million for the development phase by 2013.  ADELE will help provide peak-load electricity from renewable energies – completely without CO₂ emissions.