The world’s largest demonstration plant for a new kind of renewable energy storage is up and running in the west of the China. Called liquid-air energy storage (LAES) the plant uses renewable electricity to compress air to extreme densities until it turns to liquid. It can then be rapidly released to power a turbine and discharge that green energy back into the grid.
So a different kind of steam.
Still spinning a turbine, but not steam. Almost all power is spinning a turbine, from hydro, to coal, nuclear, and this apparently. It isn’t always steam though. Thermal power usually is, but others are spinning it with something else.
It is powered by phase change of a liquid, so almost steam.
In a way I would say it’s pretty different, right? At room temperature, water needs a lot of energy to turn and keep turning into steam, while at first glance it would seem that air could be kept liquid at room temperature (of course after using energy to compress it) without using (much?) energy, then release that energy in a useful form when you need it.
I was joking about the “it’s always just steam” in energy production.
This here is just inverse steam for storing.
Got it! Inverse steam is a good way to describe it.