Ever wonder why there are so few blackouts in the United States? It effectively boils down to this: power plants are always making more power than people are asking for.
As soon as electricity is produced, the electrons flow through power lines to homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals—wherever it is demanded. More electricity is made than grid operators expect you to consume, so that when you flip a switch, a light turns on.
Regardless of whether you actually turn on the lights, power plants keep their turbines spinning, ready to send power to the grid at a moment’s notice.
This problem of excess power-generating capacity is worse at night when demand is very low, and the disparity between the amount of power needed and available is even greater. This discourages the use of some renewables, specifically wind power, which runs mostly at night when winds are strongest (and when people are using less electricity). In short, a lot of electricity, and importantly, clean electricity, is produced at the wrong time.
That’s where energy storage comes in. Storing energy when it’s made and releasing it when it’s needed helps keep the grid reliable and paves the way for introducing intermittent renewables like wind and solar to the mix.
Energy and technology companies have been working to tackle the supply/demand mismatch for years, and batteries have arisen as the top contender to store electricity. Tesla Inc., for example, invested over $600 million in its Gigafactory in Nevada to make mass amounts of lithium ion batteries.
But one Alabama power company has found a different place to put large amounts of excess energy – in salt caverns. Half a mile underground, a salt cavern that could fit the Statue of Liberty holds Power South Energy Cooperative’s most useful resource: air.
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