Green Energy Storage for Better Gas Turbine Efficiency

Everyone with green ambitions wants to see a full fleet of 100 percent renewable energy sources drive the world’s electric power grids. Until that happens, the next best solution integrates renewable energy generators with existing gas-fired power plants to improve their warmer-weather efficiency when generating on their larger scale by using methods of energy storage and distribution. Relatively clean burning on their own, large gas turbine generators are examples of proven opportunities to gain significant efficiency and recover output by using stored thermal energy to cool their inlet air when called to operate during hotter seasons of the year. Sustainable energy sources like wind and solar, which today generate in peaks and troughs that are hard to manage on electric power grids, beckon to be put into service for thermal energy storage instead of direct on-line grid interconnection. This article steps through the implementation of such storage.