High-efficiency energy storage system ‘extracts energy from thin air’
The Ground-Level Integrated Diverse Energy Storage, or GLIDES, stores electricity mechanically in the form of compressed gas that displaces water in high-pressure vessels described by co-inventor Wale Odukomaiya as the heart of the system. The GLIDES system overcomes the site limitations of pumped storage hydroelectricity and compressed air energy, and the higher cost of batteries, by making use of waste heat from a bulding to produce more energy.
Compared to these conventional energy storage systems, GLIDES also features near constant-temperature processes, higher efficiency and more flexible scalability. In addition, the system uses the world’s smallest Pelton turbine, which extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, manufactured at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.
A Pelton wheel uses jets of water to create the motion that both generates the electricity and drive the pump to store water at quiet times. The researchers have applied for a US patent on the technology and believe this can be practical for home and commercial use.
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