WINDS-STORE: DEVELOPMENT OF A WIND ENERGY GENERATION SYSTEM WITH STORAGE CAPACITY FOR APPLICATION IN OFFSHORE INFRASTRUCTURES
The Winds-Store team, led by Professor Pedro Serna, aims to develop a wind power generation system with storage capacity for application in offshore infrastructures. This initiative belongs to the program and support line for the strengthening and development of the Valencian Innovation System of the Valencian Innovation Agency AVI, supporting the development of the project at the facilities of the Institute of Concrete Sciences and Technologies (ICITECH).
In a first phase, the technology, design and manufacture of a tank for compressed air with a capacity of 3 m³ of air at a pressure of 30 atmospheres has been developed. This scale prototype represents a non-aggressive energy storage system for the environment, It does not produce any type of residue or risk of contamination.
The added value is the use of a special concrete, as well as the energy storage. The energy will be obtained through a generation system by means of wind towers and can be recovered in the form of electricity. This technology takes advantage of the excess energy production of a wind farm by storing energy using compressed air (CAES).
The durability of the system is guaranteed since the material used is ultra-high-resistance concrete that, without the need for any maintenance, can ensure a practically eternal useful life of the tank even in an aggressive environment installed on off shore platforms, avoiding the use of materials such as steel with the consequent durability problems generated by chloride corrosion in marine environments.