ADELE – Adiabatic compressed-air energy storage (CAES) for electricity supply
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 ADELE 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 ADELE development programme, which started in 2010.
The aim of the programme is to advance adiabatic compressed air energy storage technology in preparation for a first plant to be tested in a subsequent demonstration project. The preferred site for this first demonstration plant is Stassfurt (Saxony-Anhalt) that is located in a region marked by wind energy use. The ADELE-Stassfurt project will have a storage capacity of 360 megawatt hours and an electric output of 90 megawatts. This enables ADELE-Stassfurt to provide substitute capacity at extremely short notice and replace up to 50 wind turbines of the type used in the region for a period of four hours. Altogether, the parties involved in the project are making available € 12 million for the ADELE development phase by 2013. They are supported by Germany’s Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) with funds from the COORETEC programme. ADELE will help provide peak-load electricity from renewables – completely without CO2 emissions.
