ARENA provides funding for Australia's first compressed air energy storage system

Ground rendering of the Angas CAES project Source: Hydrostor

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has approved $6 million in funding for the country’s first compressed air energy storage (CAES) project.

US company Hydrostor will transform an abandoned zinc mine in southern Australia into an underground gas storage cavern. The 5MW/10MWh demonstration plant will provide load shifting, frequency regulation and grid security services. The Angas mine is currently a brownfield and is in a "care and maintenance" state. The company has been looking for a suitable project site in Australia since summer 2017.

The company has now received A$3 million in funding from the South Australian government’s Renewable Energy Technology Fund.

“While this is a commercial demonstration at this stage, Hydrostor’s innovative approach to storing energy from air could potentially increase Australia’s grid-scale energy storage capacity to complement pumped hydro and battery storage,” ARENA chief executive Darren Miller said.

Miller added: "Compressed air energy storage has similar advantages to pumped hydro, but has the added advantage of flexibility in location and topography, such as using existing caverns in abandoned mines."

South Australia has become a hotbed for emerging energy storage technologies. A major blackout in the region in 2016 exposed the traditional grid as unfit for the modern generation mix. Since then, installations of Tesla’s “100-day” battery, trials of lithium battery arrays and the world’s largest virtual power plant have all been put into operation in the region.

(Original source: Energy Storage News New Energy Network Comprehensive)