Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) has officially joined hands with the Utah state government and Magnum Development of the U.S. in building a 1 GW energy storage system in salt caverns, which is scheduled for inauguration in 2025.

The energy storage system of the salt caverns will employ CAES (compressed air energy storage) technology. The technology will use excessive wind and solar energies to compress air for sealed storage in the caverns, which can then be applied in power generation during the day’s peak hours. With the implementation of the storage system, the consumption of fossil fuel by turbines for power generation in the US can be lowered by as much as 50%, which makes it an ideal high-performance and high-capacity energy storage option in the country.

The project, dubbed “Advanced Clean Energy Storage,” will be situated in a land with salty soil owned by Magnum, and will be affiliated with a major power plant in the neighborhood. The power plant will be the third plant employing such technology worldwide, following the existing ones in Alabama and Germany.

The storage system’s technology is currently expected to be deployed in five salt caverns in the US. Magum has already started the development of the technology that is necessary for storing compressed air and using green power to produce hydrogen. Ultimately, there will be four energy storage systems on the site, which will be used for hydrogen production with green power, compressed-air storage, liquid battery, and solid oxide fuel cell. The total capacity of the systems is estimated to be around 1 GW.

With an estimated investment of US$1 billion, the project is scheduled to be completed by 2025 and will be connected to the grid in 2025.

The compressed-air storage technology boasts lower cost and a long storage time of up to one year, which cannot be attained by any other energy storage technology.

(First photo courtesy of shutterstock)