The 27-year-old Philip Eiben has been responsible for Huntorf for seven years now
The air must be cooled during compression and heated during expansion
“ There is just one other compressed air energy storage power station in the world , in the USA .”
Philip Eiben , Huntorf power station manager
domes were leached – that is to say , flushed out – from a depth of 650 to 800 meters ,” explains Philip Eiben . It ’ s no wonder that the State Office for Mining , Energy , and Geology ( LBEG ) of Lower Saxony is responsible for the official supervision of the salt caverns .
And that holds up ? After all , air is compressed up to 72 bar here . “ There is still at least 600 meters of earth and rock between us and the caverns ,” Eiben reassures us . The electronics technician for industrial engineering knows “ his ” plant inside out ; after all , he has been working on it for seven years to ensure its smooth operation . “ This storage technology has been tried and tested for decades . Next door there are deposits of natural gas , also in salt dome caverns . They are
absolutely tight .” Eiben points to a plant that can be seen in the distance . “ We receive our natural gas , which we need for energy production , from there .”
Gigantic air pump The principle of the pressure storage system is very simple : If energy is left over , it is used to drive a huge compressor , a kind of oversized air pump . This pumps air into the hollowed-out salt dome . There is space for up to 23,000 tons of air in the dark cave in the belly of the earth . If energy is then needed , this compressed air is allowed to rise again in a controlled manner to drive a gas turbine .
Because the air is humid and cools down as it expands , it would cause any system to freeze up . Natural gas is therefore supplied via a gas pipeline . This air-gas mixture is fed into a gas turbine and burned . Electrical energy is produced by a coupled generator . The proportion of natural gas in the airgas mixture is around just three percent . The efficiency , at more than 42 percent , is high compared to conventional gas turbines due to the natural gas and compressed air supply needed . “ The balance will be even better if wind farms would otherwise have to be shut down because you don ’ t know what to do with the energy generated ,” Eiben explains , convinced of the importance of his power station . à
The Phoenix Contact innovation magazine UPDATE 6 / 20 29