BOSTON--While hundreds of other companies are trying to make a better battery, start-up SustainX Energy Solutions is compressing air, an approach it says will let utilities more easily add wind and solar to the power grid.
The president of the company, Dax Kepshire, sketched out the company's technology and product plans here on Thursday. SustainX was spun out of Dartmouth College last year and received $4 million in funding from Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital in August of this year. It now has ten employees.
There are already two compressed air energy storage facilities in the world where air is pumped underground for storage. Utilities make electricity at off-peak times and draw on the stored energy during peak-demand when power is more valuable. It's a method that's getting more attention now as a way to store several hours worth of wind power, which can produce the most at off-peak times.
Traditional compressed air storage uses underground formations to store compressed air which is released when needed to make electricity. Click on the image for a photo gallery of other types of energy storage. (Credit: PG&E)
The primary difference with SustainX's approach is that it doesn't need an underground salt dome or limestone cavern to store the compressed air. Instead, it proposes storing the compressed air in the off-the-shelf tanks. Its technical goal is to cram four megawatt-hours worth of stored energy in a 40-foot long container in two years, said Kepshire. The tank-filled container would be able to deliver one megawatt of power.
In the near term, it plans to build a 100 kilowatt hour pilot system to test the efficiency and then validate the larger model in 2011, Kepshire said.
Its technology is also very different from the existing compressed air storage facilities. With traditional compressed air energy storage, a machine called a compressor compacts air and pumps it underground. To make electricity, the air is released and run through special turbines and a generator to make electricity.
SustainX is designing a system that uses a hydraulic piston to compress air. When the air is released, it moves a hydraulic motor which is attached to a generator to make electricity, Kepshire explained.
The key to making the overall system is to reduce energy loss that happens in the compression and decompression of air, he said. He expects the first pilot system to be about 50 percent efficient but the full system to be more like 70 percent efficient overall.
Compressed air energy storage has a lot of potential because it's relatively inexpensive and because utilities can store many hours worth of electricity. Pacific Gas & Electric is investigating locations for compressd air storage capable of delivering 300 megawatts of electricity for 10 hours, or 3,000 megawatt-hours. By contast, utility-scale battery storage systems in use now deliver one or two megawatts for a few hours.
SustainX has not yet gotten any customers. But Kepshire said the company is targeting utilities looking to use more renewable energy. The company's technology, if it proves efficient enough, can be scaled to stored many hours of energy and deliver large amounts of power, he said.
The president of the company, Dax Kepshire, sketched out the company's technology and product plans here on Thursday. SustainX was spun out of Dartmouth College last year and received $4 million in funding from Polaris Venture Partners and Rockport Capital in August of this year. It now has ten employees.
There are already two compressed air energy storage facilities in the world where air is pumped underground for storage. Utilities make electricity at off-peak times and draw on the stored energy during peak-demand when power is more valuable. It's a method that's getting more attention now as a way to store several hours worth of wind power, which can produce the most at off-peak times.
Traditional compressed air storage uses underground formations to store compressed air which is released when needed to make electricity. Click on the image for a photo gallery of other types of energy storage. (Credit: PG&E)
The primary difference with SustainX's approach is that it doesn't need an underground salt dome or limestone cavern to store the compressed air. Instead, it proposes storing the compressed air in the off-the-shelf tanks. Its technical goal is to cram four megawatt-hours worth of stored energy in a 40-foot long container in two years, said Kepshire. The tank-filled container would be able to deliver one megawatt of power.
In the near term, it plans to build a 100 kilowatt hour pilot system to test the efficiency and then validate the larger model in 2011, Kepshire said.
Its technology is also very different from the existing compressed air storage facilities. With traditional compressed air energy storage, a machine called a compressor compacts air and pumps it underground. To make electricity, the air is released and run through special turbines and a generator to make electricity.
SustainX is designing a system that uses a hydraulic piston to compress air. When the air is released, it moves a hydraulic motor which is attached to a generator to make electricity, Kepshire explained.
The key to making the overall system is to reduce energy loss that happens in the compression and decompression of air, he said. He expects the first pilot system to be about 50 percent efficient but the full system to be more like 70 percent efficient overall.
Compressed air energy storage has a lot of potential because it's relatively inexpensive and because utilities can store many hours worth of electricity. Pacific Gas & Electric is investigating locations for compressd air storage capable of delivering 300 megawatts of electricity for 10 hours, or 3,000 megawatt-hours. By contast, utility-scale battery storage systems in use now deliver one or two megawatts for a few hours.
SustainX has not yet gotten any customers. But Kepshire said the company is targeting utilities looking to use more renewable energy. The company's technology, if it proves efficient enough, can be scaled to stored many hours of energy and deliver large amounts of power, he said.
Neha Verma
PGDM 3rd Sem
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