Small Scale Compressed Air Energy Storage (SS-CAES) Strategies Overview

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is a technology to store electrical energy employed for decades, mainly through large scale systems. Today, small scale compressed air energy storage (SS-CAES) are also recently applied as an alternative to replace batteries in autonomous systems and as storage for intermittent renewable sources, promoting load leveling. These systems require compact and efficient power stages, with remarkable presence of power electronics. In this context, this article offers a comprehensive overview of SS-CAES systems, presenting the operating principles of various types of configurations, as well as information regarding energy density, efficiency, cost, limitations and challenges to be overcome in order to become an competitive alternative.