General Compression

Expanding Clean Power™

Wind is the fastest growing source of new power on the grid. It is clean, inexpensive, and widely available. But wind energy is generated at the convenience of nature. Utilities that buy conventional firm power have been reluctant purchasers of renewable intermittent power.

General Compression (“GC”) has designed a system to make wind energy fully dispatchable. Our 2 MW compressor/expander absorbs and releases energy from conventional wind farms. When the wind blows too hard, wind energy is stored as compressed air. When the wind doesn’t blow hard enough, compressed air is expanded to generate power. GC’s innovation is that we burn no fuel in this process.

GC’s technology uses a near-isothermal compression/expansion cycle, giving us a round-trip efficiency of 70-75%. The modular units feature a response time of under six seconds, and can be rapidly cycled between compression and expansion to closely follow the output of a wind farm. Compressed air is stored in the same types of geologies that are used to store natural gas.

GCAES™ Projects

Multiple modules are linked together in a General Compression Advanced Energy Storage (“GCAES™”) project. The projects shape power from the wind farm so that it arrives to the customer 5 days a week for 8 hours (Peaking), 5-7 days a week for 16 hours (Intermediate) or 7 days a week for 24 hours (Baseload), or any other demand curve that a customer provides. Projects are designed to bid into firm power contracts, and to have enough storage duration, from 20-300 hours, to meet contracted delivery commitments.

GCAES™ projects are designed to make wind energy reliable, and to deliver it to customers on their schedule at costs that are competitive with conventional generators. We are working in partnership with major utilities, gas storage providers, and wind developers. GC begins construction on its first commercial project in the Fall of 2011.

Renewable generators are becoming mainstream energy sources globally. GCAES™ projects can transform that power to make it available on demand.

General Compression...Expanding Clean Power™

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