Patent ID: 8261552

Claim:
An adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) system, comprising: a low pressure compressor structure constructed and arranged to compress air and to discharge the compressed air at temperature sufficient to provide the only heat needed in the system to produce power; a first heat exchanger constructed and arranged to extract heat from the compressed air outputted by the low pressure compressor structure; a thermal storage device constructed and arranged to store the extracted heat during off-peak load periods; a motor-driven high pressure compressor constructed and arranged to receive compressed air cooled by the first heat exchanger for further compression; an aftercooler constructed and arranged to extract heat from the further compressed air without any provision to store thermal energy; an air storage constructed and arranged to receive and store the further compressed air cooled by the aftercooler; a second heat exchanger constructed and arranged to transfer heat stored in the thermal storage device to preheat the compressed air released from the air storage during peak periods; and a turbine structure constructed and arranged to expand the preheated compressed air released from the air storage to produce power, wherein the preheated compressed air expanded by the turbine structure is heated only by heat from the thermal storage device and without burning fuel.