Why China Built the World's Largest Air Battery. Build. Upgrade. Save. at Micro Center: https://micro.center/a3f28d Sign up for a FREE 128 gig Flash Drive at Micro Center Austin, TX: https://micro.center/81939a Shop Micro Center's Clearance Sales: https://micro.center/3bee6c Visit Micro Center News: https://micro.center/27eb90 Lithium-ion batteries are great for about 4 hours of storage. After that, the price stops making sense. So China built an alternative out of thin air: the world's largest compressed air battery, a salt cavern energy storage system with no lithium and no fuel burned to get the power back out. The pitch is that it beats lithium at long duration energy storage. But run the math on how long it actually lasts, and the answer comes out to 4 hours too, exactly where lithium already wins. So is China's giant air battery actually solving the long-duration problem? Or is it just an expensive peaker plant that happens to run on air? Watch The Hidden Problem With Home Batteries https://youtu.be/YrO9TArSK6o?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ Video script and citations: https://undecided.tech/why-china-built-the-worlds-largest-air-battery/ Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://undecided.link/solar-guide Follow-up podcast: Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA Audio version - https://undecided.link/stilltbd-podcast Join the Undecided Discord server: https://undecided.link/discord 👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://undecided.link/patreon Visit my Energysage Portal (US): Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage For a curated solar buying experience (Canada) EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://undecided.link/energypal 👉 Follow Me Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@mattferrell Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mattferrell.bsky.social Instagram https://www.instagram.com/undecidedtech Website https://undecided.tech Some music provided by Epidemic Sound https://undecided.link/epidemic I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 03:21 - What 71% Efficiency Actually Buys You 05:21 - The Domes Are Getting Real 08:50 - The Bet Somebody is Actually Making 10:02 - So Why is China's Only 4 Hours? 11:27 - Under Pressure 12:34 - Two Trends Going Opposite Ways
ADVERTISEMENT
Hyperventilating the mole people by pumping pressurized air underground is the plot of Gears of War.
I have to point out that you are not required to draw energy at the maximum rating. At the maximum rating you get 4 hours, but at half the maximum, you get 8 hours. You don't normally run a system at the maximum rating because you want to have a safety margin for those occasional spikes that you can't anticipate. You build the air battery for how it needs to be used.
Sounds like a smart solution for energy storage. Having multiple types of energy storage is always a good plan. Remember, never keep all your eggs in one basket.
I'm glad we aired this out. Cheers from Canada
I don't understand the intro. The fact that in an emergency you _could_ discharge in four hours doesn't mean that in a non-emergency you can't discharge over eighteen, which is what you need to store input from solar, does it? In fact, the faster you _can_ discharge the better, it means you can help with larger transients, like power plant failures or grid disruptions.
Some of your sentences feel like i'm listening to Claude talk :/
I'm glad that air is getting cheaper, it's something I use every day.
The real factor making long duration storage is cost per capacity. If you just so happen to be able to dump it into the grid over 4h, that just means it's not *exclusively* long duration.
I think this is all full of hot air😂
Engineering is a wonderful thing.
The duration depends on how you use it, 4 hours of storage at 600Mw is also 100Mw for 24 hours with the option to peak up to 600Mw
Well I'm pumped! Hoping it will expand.
never go full AI on your scripts.
Matt, nice comparison!! One note: I really think lithium for power storage might be over and sodium will take over fast. Sodium batteries last 25 years, which instantly flips all your calculations. I love any tech that can store power, but I keep thinking there are so few places to store underground compressed air, and those spots probably aren't near the coasts where power is needed. best time for Grokvoxus
Is this the storage we've been waiting for, or is it all just hot air? Build. Upgrade. Save. at Micro Center: /a3f28d Sign up for a FREE 128 gig Flash Drive at Micro Center Austin, TX: /81939a Shop Micro Center's Clearance Sales: /3bee6c Visit Micro Center News: /27eb90 If you liked this, check out The Hidden Problem With Home Batteries /YrO9TArSK6o?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ
The tone today sounded very Claude written.
I really miss Micro Center. We need one here in Puerto Rico. Grokvoxus start today!!
You’re using AI to write this, aren’t you?
The only metric that really matters is lifetime cost per kWh output. We’re already seeing essentially negative costs of energy during the day, so squeaking out a bit of efficiency is less important than how much it costs to park that energy to “make it through the night”.
This was so information-dense that it was almost a bit much for me. I think a few more visualizations might have helped me stay concentrated and helped me track. Cool video though. Ever since I gave a talk about energy storage solutions at the start of my studies, I've really liked the topic :) (I'm an engineer now, even if only in an adjacent field.)