A new company called General Compression says it will commercialize its idea for storing wind energy. Using compressed-air energy storage and a $5 million round of seed funding, the Massachusetts company plans to use compressed-air technology to store energy from wind turbines.

A typical wind turbine has a generator that sits on the turbine (the nacelle), and the electricity from the generator goes down the turbine and onto the grid. General Compression places an air compressor on the nacelle that sends highly compressed air down the tower and into underground storage (like a cave or empty gas well) or through pipelines. The pressurized air can be expanded and released when needed to make electricity. According to the General Compression website, this power would be “the lowest cost per megawatt of any wind farm in the world." See a video of the technology here.

If this idea works, it would revolutionize the wind power industry. Using compressed air to store energy is not a new idea, but companies have been wary of pursing commercialized concepts in the past because of the cost and technology barriers. But with the cost of wind power falling and worries of fossil fuel prices increasing, there’s a renewed interest.

Josh Magee, senior wind analyst at Emerging Energy Research, told CNET news.com:

"If you could figure out a way to do it cost effectively and show [utilities] you can be very profitable at it…then you would have the ability to rapidly scale wind power. If all of the sudden you had capacity, you can make a bigger dent in climate change, energy security and make a significant contribution to peak demand."

Currently a prototype device of the air compressor exists and a large-scale version is being tested later this year. General Compression plans to test on a turbine in the field in 2008.

General Compression has to overcome quite a few hurdles to make this concept a reality, including finding appropriate sites for their wind turbines, which not only have to be located in windy areas, but also near geological formations suitable to storing compress air. However the company says that where the geology isn’t conducive to storage, underground pipelines could store 6-12 hours of a wind farm’s power.

CNETNews.com, via EcoToolbox.com
General Compression