A systematic evaluation of adiabatic‐compressed air energy storage (A‐CAES) based on generating side photovoltaic: A case study on western China

Abstract

The variability of renewable energy generation and its mismatch with demand may lead to curtailment issues, which necessitates the deployment of energy storage on a significantly larger scale. A‐CAES is a promising technology for its green ability and technology maturity to serve as grid's load following. However, previous research mainly focuses on system analysis and core component optimal, and the performance of A‐CAES when constructing with renewable resources has not been fully addressed. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation on A‐CAES is presented based on an annual photovoltaic (PV) output in western China. The A‐CAES is modeled from the systematic perspective and the PV output is classified into four types (sunny, mostly‐sunny, mostly‐cloudy, and cloudy). First, the performance with different weather and different rated power of A‐CAES is fully investigated. Then, performance availability with different rated power has been proposed—the optimal condition occurs with average 5.936 MWh/day capacity and 53.49% efficiency on 1800 kW rated power. The evaluation framework is suitable for evaluating the role of CAES with other sources and such result provides a reference for A‐CAES designing and further application.