February 21, 2019: Plans to turn a disused mine in South Australia into a compressed air energy storage facility by Hydrostor Australia, a subsidiary of the Canadian start-up, announced on February 8 the Australian Renewable Energy Agency had earmarked A$6 million ($4 million) for the project.
The 5MW/10MWh pilot project to re-purpose the Angas Zinc Mine in Strathalbyn, 60km southeast of Adelaide will cost a total of A$30million. It has also received A$3 million in funding from the South Australian government through its Renewable Technology Fund.
The commercial demonstration project will provide synchronous inertia, load shifting and frequency regulation, reliability and security-of-supply services to the grid.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the pilot project could open up a new form of renewable energy storage in Australia.
“Compressed air storage has the potential to provide similar benefits to pumped hydro energy storage, however it has the added benefits of being flexible with location and topography, such as utilising a cavern already created at a disused mine site.
“It’s always exciting to see old brownfield sites given a new life and utilised for our transition to a cleaner and renewable future.”