NRSTor hosted a public meeting in Goderich Thursday night to explain its compressed air energy storage plant in an underground salt cavern in Goderich.
Director of Engineering Katherine Peretick says typically at night there tends to be more energy produced than is actually being used. In fact, Ontario frequently has to pay Michigan to take that surplus energy because there's no way to quickly ramp down production.
“So instead of paying Michigan to take that electricity, we're gonna take that electricity, store it in the form of compressed air and then put it back on the electrical grid the next day, during the day when people want the electricity and they want to use it," she says. “It's electricity that we're taking off the electrical grid. We're running compressors to compress the energy in the form of compressed air and heat in above-ground tanks and when you want the energy back, let little bits of that air out, run it through a turbine so it spins the turbine and that turns a generator and turns it back into electricity.
“There are no emissions, there's no fuel input, there's no natural gas, there's no diesel, there's nothing, it's just electricity in, electricity out – air in, air out – so has almost zero impact on the environment,” she adds.
She says the project is the first of its kind and there are no regulations for the process at this time. However, they're working very closely with the Ministry of Natural Resources to make sure they conform to any existing regulations and to help develop new regulations for the process they're using. She says construction is underway and they're hoping to be online this summer.
Open House for NRStor in Goderich