Simuling a Compressed Air Energy Storage For a Net Zero Energy Building in Tropics

Abstract

Facing the demand in electricity for houses or buildings provided by mean of photovoltaic panels is relatively tricky, especially because of the stochastic character of the solar radiation. There exists some solutions in terms of storage and among them, the one consisting in converting electricity in high-pressure compressed air seems promising. This option is under investigation in a building of teaching classes at Reunion University (a French island situated in the Indian Ocean, at the east of Madagascar. The aim in terms of consumption is 25 kWhPE.m-2.year-1 leading, if possible to a NetZEB (Zero Energy Building). So, it has been envisaged to produce the electricity by mean of PV panels, to consume the major and to store the extra production in order to be used at night and during lower shinning periods. The solution that has been investigated consists in compressing air in high pressure storage tanks and to produce electricity later thanks to a turbine. A dynamic numerical model has been built, considering a specific given load profile and local climatic data in order to estimate the production. The whole system depends mainly on the PV panel area, the storage tank volume and the pressure range. The objective is to reduce the amount of energy provided by the external network to the minimum leading to the maximum autonomy of this system. First results have been obtained and are explained in a last part, in terms of pressure and power evolution.

Keywords

• Compressed air energy storage,modelling; renewable energy; simulation; storage