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China's first compressed air energy storage in salt cavern connects to grid
CGTN
The compressed air energy storage power station in Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province. /China Power

The compressed air energy storage power station in Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province. /China Power

China's compressed air energy storage in a salt cavern connected to the grid in Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, on Thursday.

This is the first time China has used a salt cavern for energy storage by compressing air.

The energy storage power station has compressed and stored the ambient air under pressure in an underground salt cavern. When the electricity is required, the pressurized air is heated and expanded in an expansion turbine driving a generator for power production.

The salt cavern was formed after the underground salt layer in an area was been mined, which is a stable confined place, ideal for compressing air. The salt cavern for this energy storage is about 1,000 meters deep under the ground, and has enough room for storage as about 105 swimming pools.

"The energy storage means we compress the air at off-peak time and release it at peak time so we can cut down the electricity cost," said Xie Weiwei, deputy general manager of a subsidiary of China National Salt Industry Group Co. during an interview with China Media Group.

"The capacity of this energy storage reaches 300,000 kWh of electricity, an equivalent to the electricity consumption of 60,000 residents for one day."

"The power plant successfully connected to the grid can help us use electricity more efficiently and be able to store other renewable energy such as the wind power and PV power," said Lei Zhen, chief engineer of the control center of State Grid subsidiary in Jiangsu Province. "We are exploring more commercial applications for the energy storage technology."

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