Compressed Air Generation Anyone?

He also mentioned units going into Hunterston power station in Scotland, whereby a single 2.5gW unit could power just about every home in Scotland for 12 hours. And the non-cryo units have 60-70% efficiency, compared to Hydrogen's efficiency of about 30% (at best).
 
He also mentioned units going into Hunterston power station in Scotland, whereby a single 2.5gW unit could power just about every home in Scotland for 12 hours. And the non-cryo units have 60-70% efficiency, compared to Hydrogen's efficiency of about 30% (at best).
This tech reminds those of at a certain age of pre natural Gas provision using gas produced from coal and stored locally in Gasometers. Attached a YouTube video which explains its use. Not sure if the upload will work. Perhaps someone can help if not worked👴
 
Going from the number of homes they said it could power, I thought you could get a very rough estimate of the energy it can hold to see which unit they meant:

Typical UK annual household electricity use = 2700 kWh
Household use in 12 hours = 3.7kWh
Number of households in Scotland = 2.5 million
Scotland household use over 12 hours = 9.25 GWh
Or a power of 0.77 GW for 12 hours.

So 2.5 giga somethings doesn't match either of my figures at all. Ah well, only 5 minutes wasted.

It could be their numbers don't mean what I thought they did, or more likely I've cocked up somewhere 🤔.
 
I heard 'gigawatt-hours' and it seems more applicable because they were discussing energy storage.

The Maths is correct based on the numbers used. I can't comment on the numbers without a source but there is an assumption in the figures that energy use is uniform over the day/year whereas Dr Euan McTurk may well have more information.
 
The number of house holds is from National records of Scotland 2023, and the energy usage from Ofgem. But it may be quite reasonable to define both of those in a very different way in the context of the video's subject.

Your point about uniformity could be be very significant if the figures came from a source talking about overnight energy use in the summer.

It also occurs to me that the number most used comparing power stations is the maximum power output, which for a storage system would need to be much larger than the average power delivered.

I think I'll just be content just to have got the right order of magnitude.
 
The number of house holds is from National records of Scotland 2023, and the energy usage from Ofgem. But it may be quite reasonable to define both of those in a very different way in the context of the video's subject.

Your point about uniformity could be be very significant if the figures came from a source talking about overnight energy use in the summer.

It also occurs to me that the number most used comparing power stations is the maximum power output, which for a storage system would need to be much larger than the average power delivered.

I think I'll just be content just to have got the right order of magnitude.
That's why I thought he said gigawatts ... my early work life involved supplying and commissioning control and safety equipment in power stations, and every power generating unit was rated at its maximum instantaneous power output (typically from 250 megawatts upwards). These compressed air units are essentially power generating units so would be rated similarly. :)
 
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