Compressed air energy storage and future development

Power generation around the world is changing dramatically as a consequence of the demand to lower greenhouse gas releases and present a mix of power supplies. Energy storage technology is considered to be the fundamental technology to address these challenges and has great potential. This paper presents the current development and feasibilities of compressed air energy storage (CAES) and provides implications for upcoming technology advancement. The paper introduces various primary categories of CAES (Advanced Adiabatic-CAES, Liquid Air Energy Storage and Supercritical CAES). Compared with other energy storage technologies, CAES is considered a fresh and green energy storage with the distinctive superiorities of high capacity, high power rating, and long-term storage, and shortcomings of low power density, high transportation losses, and geological restriction. CAES is regarded as a promising technology that is able to be applied in renewable energy production, cogeneration, and distributed energy and microgrid systems. It's also considered to be integrated with other technologies, such as renewable energy, gas turbine, solid oxide fuel cells, and other systems in the future.