Abstract: An improved system for reducing the work required by a gas compressor in compressing a gas, comprising a gas compressor, a post-compression heat exchanger operably coupled to said gas compressor downstream therefrom to recover heat energy from a compressed amount of gas, and a means for reducing the work required by said gas compressor to compress a pre-compression amount of gas utilizing said recovered heat energy to provide cooling for the pre-compression amount of gas wherein such means includes an absorption chiller using the heat energy of compression to providing cooling for the gas to be compressed prior to compression.

Abstract: A system and method of selectively deployed and utilized compressed air energy storage satellite facilities within an electrical power grid network. The satellite facilities are independent of geological formations and provide means for increasing the load carrying capacity of an electrical power system without increasing the size of the baseload electrical power generation facility or of the power transmission lines. A portion of the compressed gas is circulated back through a compressor located in a gas flow circuit, causing turbulent flow in a series of tanks, thus slowing heat energy loss to the environment. A heat exchanger located in the circuit of gas flow cools the gas while it is being stored, thus reducing the work needed to compress a given mass of gas into the tanks. The system and method utilizes low cost electrical energy produced by a baseload facility during non-peak periods and converts such electricity into potential energy in the form of compressed air.