Compressed Air Energy Storage in Salt Caverns

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As renewable resources such wind and solar are increasingly integrated into the power grid, the intermittent**and dispersed nature of these resources is having a significant impact on the reliability and resilience of the grid**system. A storage medium not only can facilitate renewables integration, but can also help address the**balancing of local and regional generation sources, and can reduce the level of base load need. Cost-effective**energy storage on a large scale is necessary to improve overall performance and enhance reliability of the grid.**We propose Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) in Salt Caverns in Canada as a promising option to**enable a large share of renewable energy generation into the power grid.**Through the National Research Council Canada, the Canadian government has established the Energy Storage**for Grid Security and Modernization Initiative. The Ontario government, in its Long-Term Energy Plan, is also**committed to address regulatory barriers that limit the ability of energy storage technologies to compete in**Ontario's electricity market. By the end of 2014, the government will include storage technologies in its**procurement process, starting with 50MW and assessing additional engagement on an ongoing basis.**For successful commercialization of CAES in Canada on a grid-wide basis, we propose salt caverns as the**most suitable geological medium and it is present in bedded form in southwest Ontario and east-central**Alberta. Suitable salt strata for CAES are also present in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. The**domains of this research project include: geoscience and geotechnical analysis of cavern design including the**novel concept of long galleries dissolved in salt, thermo-mechanical assessment of turbine operation, design**and cycling, including heat scavenging, and grid integration modeling to assess scale effects of storage facilities**and locations on variable generation (intermittent input in terms of time and magnitude) and capability for