An ambitious plan to build a 2 GW wind farm in Wyoming and store excess power using compressed air in underground caverns in Utah. When energy is needed, the compressed air is released to power turbines. Most of the power would go to California when extra energy is needed. No fossil fuels will be used to generate energy. Compressed air energy storage is currently being used successfully in Alabama and Germany. It’s a proven technology that needs certain types of caverns to store the air in.
As the Casper Star Tribune points out, the entire system—this so-called “Hoover Dam of the 21st century,” with a total price tag pushing $8 billion—could someday power as many as 1.2 million California homes and it could be operational as early as 2023.