Canadian company Hydrostor Inc. has developed first utility scale underwater energy storage solution that addresses intermittent (solar & wind) load balancing, reserve capacity, and peak-shaving. The system uses electricity to compress air in a building on Toronto Island and then pumpe through a pipe into six large balloons anchored on the lake bed about three kilometres offshore, 60 metres below the surface.
To convert the stored energy back to electricity, the pressurized air runs a generator. A compressed air storage system will be about half the cost of a similar-sized system based on lithium-ion batteries and hold power for much longer. The Toronto Island test system can generate about one megawatt of power, enough to power about 300 homes. Read more at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
