How can you make wind power last all day, even when the breeze dies down? One answer might be compressed air energy storage, or CAES. The Iowa Stored Energy Park is building a facility that will combine the power generation of several wind turbines and use underground storage to make it more reliable.
When demand for electricity is lowest in the middle of the night, the turbines will compress air and pump it underground in either salt domes or other geological spaces. During times of peak energy demand, such as the afternoon, the air can be released to help power a gas turbine generator, using half as much gas. The facility, which is projected to store several days' worth of electricity, is set to be online in 2011.
Photo by Iowa Stored Energy Park
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