The global market for compressed air energy storage (CAES) sits at a turning point. Since its introduction as a utility scale electricity storage technology in the 1970s, low energy prices and a proliferation of cheap natural gas fired peaking power plants slackened demand for energy storage, and CAES never got off the ground. Over the following decades, only two plants were built, one in the US, and one in Germany. And although these facilities provided effective energy storage capacity at reasonable cost, the need for utility scale energy storage was insufficient to kick start the CAES market. Recent trends, however, threaten to invigorate the CAES market. Global concerns about climate change, environmental pollution, and energy security have generated a strong, bullish market for renewable energy production. Wind and solar markets, in particular, have seen tremendous gains over the last five years. But wind and solar resources are highly variable in nature. Solar technologies can only provide generation capacity when the sun is shining, and wind turbines can only produce electricity when there is sufficient wind available. Often, sun and wind availability does not align with consumer electricity demand. Therefore, in order to effectively meet demand for renewable electricity, as is now mandated by many government institutions around the globe, renewable energy storage is needed. Also, current grid management issues, including congestion along regional power grids, aging (and very costly) transmission infrastructure, and power supply trends are drawing together to make favorable conditions for CAES as solution for peak power supply and grid management. CAES components also have the advantage of being, for the most part, readily available and mature. Gas turbines, air compressors, recuperators, injection and extraction wells, and other CAES components represent mature technologies that already operate under streamlined economies of scale. Other, more experimental storage technologies, such as fuel cells, flywheels, or massive batteries, are not close to reaching cost parity with CAES installations. In sum, these trends act as drivers in support of a developing and persistent CAES market. Viable CAES markets will re-emerge in the near term, gaining stability as the technology gains traction, and additional projects come on line, through 2014. CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage Worldwide contains comprehensive data on the global market for CAES technologies, including historic (2004-2009) and forecast (2010-2014) market size data, broken down in terms of CAES components - including the CAES compression subsystem, storage subsystem, and the expansion/generation subsystem. The report identifies key trends affecting the marketplace, along with trends driving growth, and also profiles major technology providers, and end user characteristics.
Read an excerpt from this report below. Report MethodologyThe information in CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage Worldwide is based on data from the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, European Commission, Princeton University, American Wind Energy Association, U.S. national laboratories, the California Energy Commission, U.S. and global energy research institutions, utilities, CAES manufacturers, CAES engineers, along with information from trade associations, business journals, company literature and websites, Securities and Exchange Commission reportings, and research services such as Simmons Market Research Bureau. What You’ll Get in This Report CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage Worldwide makes important predictions and recommendations regarding the future of this market, and pinpoints ways current and prospective players can capitalize on current trends and spearhead new ones. No other market research report provides both the comprehensive analysis and extensive data that CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage Worldwide offers. Plus, you’ll benefit from extensive data, presented in easy-to-read and practical charts, tables and graphs. How You’ll Benefit from This Report If your company is already doing business in the CAES technologies and services market, or is considering making the leap, you will find this report invaluable, as it provides a comprehensive package of information and insight not offered in any other single source. You will gain a thorough understanding of the current market for CAES technologies, as well as projected markets and trends through 2014. This report will help:
Market Insights: A Selection From The Report Power Project Financing Trends Similar to most power generation projects pursued by utilities, CAES facilities are likely to be predominately financed through a combination of debt (e.g. loans, revenue bonds) and equity (shares of ownership in the facility and profits realized from its operation). Repayment schedules of 10-20 years are possible for power plants, while utility revenue bonds may have repayment schedules of over 30 years. Equity financing is very common among alternative energy, renewable energy, and grid efficiency technologies including grid energy storage facilities. Joint equity agreements and partnerships may become more common as larger corporations interested in diversifying their energy- and power-related assets enter the CAES industry, and also seek to become end users or partial owners of completed facilities. Because public utilities represent a majority of the end user market for CAES, utility ratepayers also represent another option for project financing through the introduction of surcharges or higher energy rates. Global Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Market Empowered as Solution to Power Management Conundrum New York, April 12, 2010 - The ubiquitous championing of renewable energy production born from global concerns about climate change, environmental pollution, and energy security frequently overlooks one important caveat: the inherently and highly variable nature of renewable resources such as wind and solar power, whose periodic availability doesn’t always align with consumer electricity demand. Additionally, consider the current grid management issues such as aging transmission infrastructure and congestion along regional power grids, and it becomes obvious that a bonafide energy conundrum exists for governments worldwide seeking to meet the demand for renewable electricity. The answer is renewable energy storage, which is creating new market opportunities for the development of compressed air energy storage (CAES) as a solution for peak power supply and grid management, according to leading industrial market research firm SBI Energy in the recently released report CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage Worldwide. “CAES offers a very valuable solution. Renewable power generated during off peak periods can easily be stored in a CAES facility, and then released back onto the grid during periods of high electricity demand,” says Robert Eckard, SBI Energy analyst and author of the report. “We’re talking about a technologically mature energy storage option capable of generating electricity for several hours at utility-scale capacities above 100 megawatts, a feat few other market-available grid energy storage technologies can approach.” At its best, the technology offers the global energy industry and wholesale power markets solutions to issues including baseload renewable power purchasing, responsive and flexible utility scale power generation, increasing of renewable energy capacity factors, and reactive power support. With the construction of only two previous CAES facilities, the expected re-emergence in construction of new CAES facilities during the period 2010-2014 will have a significant impact on the CAES market, predicts Eckard. SBI Energy experts further anticipate a refocusing towards the manufacture and supply of CAES components, based on a perceived future jump in CAES markets. With only a few dedicated engineering companies and manufacturers a few years ago, the CAES industry is apparently growing through the entrance of project service providers and manufacturers. The entrance of new companies and manufacturers to the CAES market also appears to be driven by governmental support for research and development of the next generation of CAES facilities. Beyond 2014, SBI Energy forecasts the emergence of CAES outside current hotspots in the United States and Germany, into areas of Asia and Europe with significant long-term wind power development projected in the North Sea (to supply surrounding countries such as Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Germany), along with solar power development in the southern Mediterranean (powering Spain and Italy), and possibly China if wind and solar power development drives future grid energy storage capabilities. CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage Worldwide provides comprehensive data on the global market for CAES technologies, including historic (2004-2009) and forecast (2010-2014) market size data, broken down in terms of CAES components—including the CAES compression subsystem, storage subsystem, and the expansion/generation subsystem. The report identifies key trends affecting the marketplace, along with trends driving growth, and also profiles major technology providers, and end user characteristics. About SBI Energy
| |||||||||
Email a colleague
Printer format
Order by fax