Patent ID: 8015812

Claim:
A power plant, comprising: a compressed air storage system including an air compressor and a compressed air storage vessel; two or more distributed power modules fluidically coupled in parallel to the compressed air storage system, each of said two or more distributed power modules further including a heat source; an expander device having an inlet fluidically coupled to said compressed air storage system, and an outlet fluidically said two or more distributed power modules, said expander for converting energy of a gas received at said inlet to mechanical power; a heat exchanger fluidically coupled to the expander device inlet and the expander device outlet for effecting a transfer of heat from gas exiting the expander device to gas entering the turbine expander; a generator connected to said expander device for converting mechanical power to electrical power; said expander device comprising a turbine expander having a rotatable shaft, an inlet fluidically coupled to said compressed air storage system, and an outlet fluidically said two or more distributed power modules, said turbine expander for converting energy of a gas received at said inlet to rotary shaft power; a controller for optimizing a speed of the turbine expander responsive to any one or more of temperature of an inlet gas, temperature of an outlet gas, pressure or an inlet gas, or pressure of an outlet gas; and a supplementary hydrogen or hydrocarbon-based selectable heat supply for heating a gas to be delivered to the inlet of said turbine expander.