Broader Impacts

  • Health / Environmental / Safety

The emergence of energy storage lessens the need for fossil fuel consumption at power plants. This reduces the need to operate these plants for long durations and thereby creates an opportunity for the air and water quality in that region to improve as pollution lessens. The benefit of this is three fold…

  1. Residents living near fossil fuel plants will be able to have access to an improved environment where they are exposed to smaller quantities of pollutants which is better for one’s health. 
  2. Extrapolated into the future, the use of renewables could also reduce the need for energy generation that involves hazardous waste products. For instance, there exists fear of nuclear energy because while the risk of failure is low, it is catastrophic. Consequently, reducing nuclear waste production and the need for nuclear power plants could help inhabitants of the area feel safer. 
  3. Lastly, emergence of energy storage solutions such as CAES could enable a smoother transition into renewables and reduce the need to turn off energy generation by renewables sources for fear of overwhelming the grid which reduces the supply-demand imbalance as illustrated by the duck curve. 
  • Welfare
      • If governments incentivize energy storage, then everyone (private and public) can reap the benefits of added efficiency and capacity to the rapidly developing power grid. Seeing that EVs are becoming more proliferated (with the U.S. hoping to have half the nation’s vehicles be EV by 2030), it would be essential for energy capacity to expand to accommodate this incoming revolution. For EV manufacturers and owners, government investment in creating energy infrastructure is likely to accelerate EV market growth as more producers and users start to feel assured that EV charging will not become an inconvenience due to access or capacity. 
  • Global
      • If our design actually accomplishes the goal of being economically favorable, it can help promote the concept of a CAES system and increase its applicability at a global scale. As it was mentioned in our problem scope, many countries have shown their awareness with regards to environmental concerns over the last few years and have set a goal to achieve net zero by 2050. If countries across the world realize that our system is easily integratable into the community and has the ability to shorten the path of achieving net zero, it would make most sense to increase the application of the system. 
      • Also, even if the system doesn’t turn out the way we expect it to, the research we have done can be used as a catalyst to apply other concepts and further help other research related to renewable energy. Publishing our research online enables access to other researchers across the globe.
  • Cultural
      • Widely distributed CAES would likely make communities more aware of their energy use.
      • By distributing mid-size compressed air energy storage systems, people will become more knowledgeable about energy use. They may become more conscientious about the amount of energy they use and may think more about what appliances they use. For example, they may only wash their clothes when they have a full load or may be more aware of turning off lights when they leave a room.
      • More self-reliance rather than complete dependence on industrialized and privatized energy companies.
      • Culturally, countries will be less reliant on global politics that are involved with lithium ion batteries. Lithium stores are prominently in Afghanistan where the United States political relationship is not always steady. There may be fewer world conflicts if the United States has options so that they do not always have to purchase materials from other countries.
  • Social
    • Reduce environmental injustice because energy is cleaner and infrastructure is more distributed in more locations. This way, the disparity between air quality can be minimized as our global energy market moves towards clean and renewable energy. 
    • The application of a CAES system will increase the production and availability of EV charging stations. This will naturally drive the populations interest towards electric vehicles, because concerns related to lack of charging stations will be resolved.
  • Economic
    • Allow businesses to be self-reliant rather than tied to a large energy grid.
    • Reduce the peak energy load effects so that energy is more consistent in price for users.
    • Reduce negative externalities of non-renewable energy. A negative externality occurs when the social costs outweigh the private benefits of technology. The social costs of using non-renewable energy include all the negative effects of carbon emissions that cause climate change. Economically, resources will be better optimized by using an entirely renewable energy network.
    • The availability of compressed air energy storage could increase the infrastructure of electric vehicle charging stations. This could cause governments to increase subsidies for electric vehicles. The new infrastructure bill in the US includes subsidies for electric vehicles, but this funding could increase and even reach the state level. If the infrastructure to make using electric vehicles on longer trips exists, there will be greater incentives to fully adopt them as the primary mode of transportation.