No abstract

A detailed analysis has been carried out to assess the thermodynamic and economic performance of Diabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage (D-CAES) systems equipped with above-ground artificial storage. D-CAES plant arrangements based on both Steam Turbine (ST) and Gas Turbine (GT) technologies are taken into consideration. The influence of key design quantities (ie, storage pressure, turbine inlet pressure, turbine inlet temperature) on efficiency, capital and operating costs is analysed in detail and widely discussed. Finally, D-CAES design solutions are compared with Battery Energy Storage (BES) systems on the basis of the Levelized Cost of Storage (LCOS) method. Results show that the adoption of D-CAES can lead to better economic performance with respect to mature and emerging BES technologies. D-CAES ST based solutions can achieve a LCOS of 28 €cent/kWh, really close to that evaluated for the better performing BES system. Interesting LCOS values of 20 €cent/kWh have been attained by adopting D-CAES plant solutions based on GT technology. K E Y W O R D S artificial air reservoir, battery energy storage (BES), compressed air energy storage (CAES), levelized cost of storage (LCOS), techno-economic analysis