A techno-economic assessment of offshore wind coupled to offshore compressed air energy storage

A critical challenge associated with renewable energy is managing its variable and intermittent output. Offshore compressed air energy storage (OCAES) is a carbon-free storage technology that can used to support renewable energy generation in marine environments. This paper provides the first economic characterization of OCAES performance when coupled to an offshore wind farm by employing a mixed integer programming model. The model seeks the minimum levelized cost of electricity by optimizing the grid-tied cable capacity and OCAES component sizes across a range of specified cable capacity factors. OCAES can be used to increase the capacity factor of the grid-tied transmission cable, but the resultant levelized cost of electricity strongly depends on the OCAES cost assumptions. Compared to using a land-based gas turbine as backup, OCAES is significantly more expensive, even when the price of carbon exceeds 1000 $/tC. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.