A 300 MW compressed air energy storage (CAES) power station utilizing two underground salt caverns in central China’s Hubei Province was successfully connected to the grid at full capacity, making it the largest operating project of the kind in the world.
The “Energy Storage No. 1” project utilizes the caverns of an abandoned salt mine, reaching up to 600 meters of depth, as its gas storage facility.
This allows for a gas storage volume of nearly 700,000 cubic meters, translating into a single unit power output of up to 300 MW and a storage capacity of 1,500 MWh.
The system conversion efficiency is about 70%. It can store energy for eight hours, release energy for five hours every day, and generate about 500 GWh of electricity annually.
