The Iowa Stored Energy Park Agency (ISEPA) officially announced the selection of a reservoir for the highly anticipated compressed air energy storage (CAES) facility spearheaded by IAMU.
This facility, referred to as ISEP (Iowa Stored Energy Park), will join only two other underground energy facilities in the world using air pressure as the storage medium, making Iowa and IAMU a leader in the field. ISEPA is closely analyzing a location just west of Dallas Center in central Iowa. The site lies within 30 miles of downtown Des Moines, and is the third location ISEPA researched after initially screening more than 20 geological structures in Iowa. ISEP will employ CAES, which utilizes air stored underground at naturally occurring pressures. Stored air is released when needed to help generate energy for cities and utilities which have purchased rights to utilize it. ISEP will combine the underground storage of air with energy derived from wind power in Iowa, making the project doubly attractive as Iowa strives to further the advancement of wind energy. Some of the energy collected by wind turbines will drive compressors to push the air underground. ISEP will provide 268MW of CAES generating power and plans to use approximately 75MW of wind power.
