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New research suggests that rocks on the seabed off the British coast could be long-term storage sites for renewable energy production.
An advanced technique could be used to trap compressed air in porous rock formations discovered in the North Sea using electricity from renewable technologies.
The pressurized air could then be released to drive a turbine to generate large amounts of electricity.
The use of this large-scale technique could store enough compressed air to meet the UK's electricity needs in the winter when demand is strongest, the study revealed.
This approach could help provide stable and reliable sources of energy from renewable sources – such as wind turbines and tidal turbines – and help limit the rise in global temperature due to climate change.
However, the amount of energy produced by many renewable technologies varies with weather conditions. In addition, new processes to store energy reliably and economically for months at a time are needed, according to the researchers.
Engineers and geoscientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde have used mathematical models to evaluate the potential of the process, called compressed air energy storage (CAES).
The team then predicted UK storage capacity by combining these estimates with a database of geological formations in the North Sea.
The porous rocks beneath British waters could store about one and a half times the demand for electricity typical of the United Kingdom in January and February, they discovered.
The energy storage in the compressed air would operate using electricity from renewable energies to power a motor generating compressed air. This air would be stored at high pressure in the pores of the sandstone, using a deep well drilled into the rock. In times of energy shortage, pressurized air escaped from the well, allowing a turbine to generate electricity injected into the grid.
A similar process for storing air in deep salt caverns has been used at German and US sites.
Setting up wells near renewable energy sources – such as offshore wind turbines – would make the process more efficient, less costly and reduce the number of submarine cables needed, the team said.
The study is published in the journal Nature Energy. It was funded by the Council for Research on Engineering and the Physical Sciences, the Scottish Funding Council and the Energy Technology Partnership.
Julien Mouli-Castillo, director of the study, said: "This method could be used to store the renewable energy produced in the summer for cold winter nights." It can provide a viable solution even for so expensive, an option to ensure that the UK's renewable electricity supply is resilient between seasons, further research could help refine the process and reduce costs. "
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Material provided by University of Edinburgh. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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