On November 10, 2022, Breeze took part in a session at COP27, the United Nations climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The session, “Innovation and Capacity Building for Economically Viable Transitioning of Traditional Carbon-Intensive Hubs and Markets”, was held in the conference’s Capacity-building Hub. It was hosted by the Commonwealth Sustainable Energy Transition (CSET) team and the Young Engineers and Future Leaders of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations.
Josh Wiart, a mechanical engineer who was at COP27 on behalf of Breeze, presented “Transitioning the Energy Industry to Net Zero”, an energy storage showcase, with Evangelos Pastras, a battery storage project manager in the UK who attended with the Commonwealth Youth Programme and CSET.
The talk opened with the basics: megawatts measure how fast a storage system discharges, and megawatt hours measure how much it holds. Pastras covered lithium-ion batteries for fast, short duration storage. Wiart then described Breeze’s compressed air pipeline system (CAPS) as a long duration option. Solar or wind power drives an air compressor that fills a decommissioned pipeline, and the air later runs through a turbine to make power. Because the pipeline is long, it also acts as a transmission line that can charge and discharge along its length.
Heat from compression can serve greenhouses, manufacturing and food production, and the cold air from the turbine can cool data centers, make ice and air-condition nearby homes and businesses. The talk closed on what holds projects back: financing, local resources and legislation.