Energiespeichersysteme: von der Theorie in die PraxisHightech Zentrum Aargau AG

October 20th 2015

A sustainable energy storage solution built in the Swiss Alps

Company overview

Airlight Energy is a Swiss private company that supplies proprietary solar technologies

for large-scale production of electricity and thermal energy, and for energy storage. It has developed

innovative and complete solutions for the markets of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), Concentrated

Photovoltaic (CPV) and energy storage (Advanced Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage AA-CAES).

Airlight Energy Holding SA

100 % 70 % 100 %100 %

Airlight Energy Manufacturing SA

Airlight Energy IP SA

Airlight Energy Maroc Sarl AU

Airlight Energy USA Ltd

Airlight Energy Group

Scientific partnerships Commercial & technical agreements

Grants

BFE (Swiss Federal Office of Energy) 2.5 mio CHF

KTI (Confederation Innovation’s Agency) 1.8 mio CHF

Cantone Ticino 0.6 mio CHF

IRESEN - Morocco 0.4 mio CHF

Introducing ALACAES

• ALACAES, a Swiss private company, is a subsidiary of Airlight Energy that is developing an advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage (AA-CAES) solution for large-scale electricity storage

• ALACAES is born in 2012 as a spin-off of Airlight Energy aimed at concentrating the know-how developed in the field of energy storage technologies in a single, dedicated company

Why Electricity Storage?

Source: EWI/Prognos/GWS – Energy reference forecast, 2014

German Electricity Production Forecast

in %

Why Electricity Storage?

German wind energy production at selected days in April 2011

in MW

Source: RWE

• Gas burner to heat the compressed air • Salt cavern for air storage • 3h of production with a storage capacity of 640 MWh• Efficiency: 40%

• Gas burner and heat recuperation • Salt cavern for air storage, • 26h of production with a storage capacity 2860 MWh• Efficiency: 54%

• Air is compressed using excess electricity from the grid and stored in underground caverns

• Compressed air is later expanded in turbines to generate electricity

• Compression generates heat that is dissipated to the environment

• In release mode air is heated by means of a fossil fuel burner

Conventional CAES Technology

Existing Plants:Huntorf (DE) in 1978

McIntosh (US) in 1991

Heat recovery allows a global

efficiency of above 72%Zero CO2

Up to several GWh

of storage capacity No electricity

needed for start-up (Black-start)

<5 min

of ramping times

the heat generated at the

compression stage is first stored and then used at the expansion stage

TESsystems

Wit

h

Existing CAES plants

ALACAES’ Solution

ALACAES Technology

ALACAES Technology - The Thermal Energy Storage

• High round-trip efficiency >95%

• Mechanical stability due to concrete walls and conical shape

• Abundant and cheap storing material (gravel)

• No solidifying problems like molten salt

• Direct heat transfer between storage material and working fluid (no HX needed)

• No degradation or chemical instability

• No use of chemicals and corrosive material

• No safety concerns

100 MWhth Industrial scale TES developed by Airlight Energy and the hot rocks during TES operation

char

gin

g

dis

char

gin

g

Key advantages of Airlight Energy’s TES solution:

Exploiting Airlight Energy’s Thermal Energy Storage (TES) solution, based on a packed bed of rocks

ALACAES Technology

• Use of mountains as the air pressure cavern – easily accessible and vast experience from gas storage caverns

• Packed bed of rocks TES developed for CSP technology – high round-trip efficiency, high reliability

• Placement of the TES inside the pressure cavern – TES tank not pressurized, costs and complications of the TES solution significantly reduced

• Placement of the turbomachinery inside the mountain – reducing the visibility of the plant and therefore its public acceptance, vast experience from pumped hydro plants

ALACAES Technology

ALACAES Application

Test-Plant :Placed in an unused tunnel in the Swiss Alps Budget: 4 mio CHF; 40% financed by BfE

500 MWh Plant

Test-PlantLayout

Test-PlantLayout

Test-Plant

Test-Plant

Test-Plant

Test-Plant

Test-Plant

• Use an existing underground cavity with no special lining to store compressed air

• Determine the rock-mass behaviour of the storage cavern under load cycles

• Test the rock permeability and the airtightness of the sealing system

• Test in real dimension the efficiency of Airlight Energy’s TES system in a pressurized ambient

• Assess the functionality of the mechanical equipment

• Face the difficulties for the realization and operation of a plant in real scale

The ALACAES Test-Plant

2013 2014 2015 2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2

Project Definition

Preparatory Work

Civil Works

Electromechanical installations

Commissioning

Testing Phase

Test-PlantRealization Timeline

: Milestone

Test-PlantShifting the maturity level of AA-CAES

With the Pollegio test plant ALACAES is pushing AA-CAES towards the demonstration and deployment phase

Item Unit Value Comment

Power MW 100

Capacity MWh 500 5h at peak power

Round-Trip efficiency % 70%

Plant lifetime Years 60

Output degradation % / Year 0.25%Since operation starts until power island maintenance (every 15 years)

Item Price (k€)

CAPEX 72’500145 €/kWh

Item Price (k€)/year

OPEX 1’213average per year

ALACAES Cost Estimate (CAPEX & OPEX)

Summary

• ALACAES is developing an advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage technology using the thermal energy storage of Airlight Energy

• With the ALACAES technology, the efficiency of CAES is significantly improved to above 70%

• First world-wide AA-CAES plant under construction in the Swiss Alps with a budget of 4 mio CHF, financed 40% by BfE

• Very low environmental impact and almost no visible footprint

• Highly competitive with pumped hydro storage

Airlight Energy Holding SAVia Industria 106710 BiascaSwitzerland

www.alacaes.com

Follow the construction of our pilot plant on Twitter : @ALACAES