Thermo-dynamic analysis and simulation of a combined air and hydro energy storage (CAHES) system

- A combined air and hydro energy storage system is proposed.
- High exergy efficiency is achieved and consumption of fossil fuel is eliminated.
- The system performance is affected by compression ratio and solar radiation.

Large-scale energy storage is essential for the stability of a grid, especially for those with large proportion of intermittent renewable energy sources. The efficiency of a conventional compressed air energy storage (CAES) technology is limited by compression heat loss and changing working conditions.In this manuscript, a combined air and hydro energy storage (CAHES) system is proposed, which realizes a higher exergy efficiency compared with conventional CAES systems by reducing compression heat losses and addressing issues of changing working conditions through thermal compensation from solar radiation. The configuration and two operating modes of the proposed CAHES system are firstly introduced, followed by theoretical analysis and numerical simulation under different operating modes to analyze system performances. Impacts of external and internal factors on the system performances are analyzed. The practical feasibility of the system is also investigated. Results show that the exergy efficiency of the system reaches approximately 50%, whilst the charging electricity ratio reaches over 80%.