Regenerative air energy storage for remote wind-diesel micro-grid communities

The results show that in systems with WEC penetration less than 75%, increasing WEC capacity is more economic than adding a RAES system. Above penetration rates of 75%, the use of RAES achieves increased diesel savings with only slightly longer payback than simple wind-diesel systems. In the remote Canadian community case study, the optimal RAES system is 0.5 MW and 1 MW h with a WEC penetration rate of approximately 75%. A larger RAES results in further fuel savings, and thus environmental benefit, with only marginal increase in simple payback period.