The CAO for Goderich likes the idea of burying compressed air in cairns at Sifto in Goderich at the evaporator plant, which would be recovered at a later date and converted into electricity.
The leading-edge pilot project is being proposed by NRStor, which has an agreement with Compass Minerals.
Larry McCabe says the cairns have been proven to be safe, and in the end the compressed air is introduced back into the grid as electricity in times of an emergency or peak power.
McCabe says the the process would be very much like a car's engine with large cylinders at one end and smaller ones at the other. The compressed air would be forced into the smaller cylinders and stored in the cairns, and the process is reversed when the energy is needed.
The next step is approval from the Independent Electricity System Operators, the Ministry of Environment, and then Goderich town council.
