China activates 600-MW salt cavern energy storage project

The station is expected to generate 792 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

The Huai'an Salt Cavern Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) demonstration project in China's Jiangsu Province, now fully operational, consisting of two 300-megawatt (MW) CAES units, with 2,400 megawatt-hours of storage.

Utilising about 980,000 cubic metres of salt caverns, it employs molten salt and pressurised thermal water non‑supplementary combustion high‑temperature adiabatic compression technology.

This enables compressed heat to be stored and reused throughout the process without fossil fuel combustion.

With a total investment of $520m, the station is expected to generate 792 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to power around 600,000 households.