Energy storage systems are lacking, although eco-friendly energy is produced in surplus. So scientists formulate an eco-friendly storage method with the help of nature’s technology.
FREMONT, CA: As climate change becomes increasingly problematic, finding an eco-friendly method to generate energy and store it has been more than essential. Wind turbines and solar power plants generate sustainable and eco-friendly fuel, but not steadily. In cases of excess generation, energy storage is critical for when the sun sets and the wind dies.
During the invention of an eco-friendly storage system, scientists have found a technology prepared by nature to store energy. A layer of permeable rocks deep in the seabed is detected to store energy in the form of compressed air—direct renewable energy conversion into a compressed gaseous state with the latest technology accumulated in the rocky layer.
The stored energy can be leveraged, similarly popping the cork and using the air to drive the turbine reforming electricity. With the intense pressures created down in the earth’s substrate, the air would not escape independently.
The porous media compressed air energy storage (PM-CAES) system combines technologies that could alter energy production trends and support climate change mitigation.
Scientists have started studying the deep ocean grounds for an ideal storage area as the energy can be produced closer with offshore wind turbines. By geological terrain modelling and inspection for air wells, the perfect place, when found, can ideally change the country’s supply and demand facet.
PM-CAES can meet the entire country’s demand for winter months, even when the market is said to be 25% higher, as per the study by the developers. In addition, it demands very few quantities of physical infrastructure as the method includes a small area outwardly for a plant to pump out the compressed air and underwater rocks conveying it back to electricity. As a result, PM-CAES will leave a negligible footprint, benefiting regions with limited land surface or water resources.
