hydrostor, inc. recently announced that its latest development, hydrostor terra, which is a long-duration bulk energy system that will be expected to compete head-to-head with new natural gas plants.

hydrostor terra uses an adiabatic thermal management system to provide cooling.
(youtube/hydrostor)

the system allows utilities, such as electricity providers, to cost-effectively manage reserve capacity, peak shaving, transmission congestion, renewables integration, and moving away from fossil fuels. according to the press release, this system can be used at half the cost of battery technologies.

“hydrostor terratm is an industry-changing breakthrough in cost-competitive bulk energy storage,” said curtis vanwalleghem, president and ceo of hydrostor. “we are engaged with several utilities around the world to deploy systems rated at hundreds of megawatts, delivering gigawatt-hours of storage at durations ranging from four hours up to multiple days.”

unlike other caes (compressed air energy storage) systems, hydrostor terra does not require underground geological formations for its location and it does not rely on natural gas to generate heat. terra can be deployed near any body of water.

“because of its advanced adiabatic design, it efficiently recycles the heat it generates during one process for use in another, making it truly emission-free,” the announcement said.

the terra system works by converting off-peak electricity to compressed air stored in an isobaric underground cavern. when charging, heat from the compressors is stored in a patented adiabatic thermal management system (which reduces heat through a change in air pressure caused by volume expansion) to later be used to increase air temperature prior to expansion.

according to the company website, “terra™ utilizes hydrostatic pressure from a water-filled shaft to maintain an isobaric (constant pressure) system during charge and discharge, significantly reducing the cavern size required as compared to traditional caes systems.”

it added, “when charging, compressed air is piped from the surface into the purpose-built accumulator, displacing water up the shaft and back to its source. conversely, when the system discharges, compressed air flows back up to the mechanical equipment while gravity forces water to flow into the accumulator, displacing the air.”

learn more about the hydrostor terra technology in the video below: