Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) and Magnum Development on May 30 joined the governor of Utah to announce an initiative to launch the Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project in central Utah.
The ACES initiative will develop 1,000 megawatts of 100 percent clean energy storage, deploying technologies and strategies essential to a decarbonized future for the western U.S. power grid.
Initially developing enough energy storage to completely serve the needs of 150,000 households for an entire year, the ACES initiative will deploy four types of clean energy storage at utility scale. These energy storage technologies include:
- Renewable hydrogen
- Compressed air energy storage
- Large-scale flow batteries
- Solid oxide fuel cells
It has been called the world’s largest project of its kind.
According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector have dropped 30 percent since 2005 because of a combination of natural gas and renewable power replacing retiring coal-fired power plants.
MHPS has developed gas turbine technology that enables a mixture of renewable hydrogen and natural gas to produce power with even lower carbon emissions. The MHPS technology roadmap aims to use 100 percent renewable hydrogen as a fuel source, which will allow gas turbines to produce electricity with zero carbon emissions.
Magnum Development owns and controls the only known “Gulf Coast” style domal-quality salt formation in the western United States. With five salt caverns already in operation for liquid fuels storage, Magnum is continuing to develop compressed air energy storage and renewable hydrogen storage options. Strategically located adjacent to the Intermountain Power Project, the Magnum site is positioned to integrate seamlessly with the western U.S. power grid using existing infrastructure.
The ACES project will engineer, finance, construct, own and operate facilities located in Millard County, Utah. Over the coming weeks and months, additional strategic and financial partners will be invited to participate
