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This paper presents the geological resource potential of the compressed air energy storage (CAES) technology worldwide by overlaying suitable geological formations, salt deposits and aquifers. For this study, the world is divided into 145 regions, which are aggregated to 9 major regions. The potential of CAES in each region is assessed and a relevant map is provided. Three constraints have been implemented, allowing for 1%, 5% and 10% of the selected area to be considered for CAES. Among all major regions, in the most conservative constraint (1% of the total area), North America is the leader with 0.26% suitability of its total area, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa and South America at 0.20% and 0.19%, respectively. A sensitivity analysis is implemented to evaluate the validity and reliability of the results. Three scenarios are considered: Optimistic, Moderate and Pessimistic. Underground natural gas storage data for the US is used due to freely and publicly available data. The natural gas storage site is assumed to have the same structure as CAES. The sensitivity analysis shows that the accuracy of the findings lie in the range of 66–85% and 63–82%, depending on the scenarios and reservoir types. The results clearly reveal that CAES is a promising energy storage technology for electricity supply in most of the regions. This research presents the groundwork to identify the untapped potential of CAES, which can be also utilized for the second generation of CAES such as adiabatic CAES and isothermal CAES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An improved operation strategy for decentralized A-CAES is proposed. • TES behavior and its effects on A-CAES performance are analyzed. • Characteristics and capacity limitations of HES's components are considered. • A parametric study showed an optimum value for the system's design parameters. • Improved operation strategy reduced the ramp-up /down rate by around 4% /11%. Adiabatic compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) has shown great application potentials in integrated hybrid energy systems (HES) in recent years. The integration requires A-CAES to store intermittent renewables power to meet the fluctuating load demand. Therefore, the operation of compressors and turbines must be adjusted by renewable power output and load demand, respectively. This paper presents an improved energy management operation strategy (I-EMOS) to enhance the A-CAES system's utilization for decentralized applications. In doing so, besides integrating thermal energy storage (TES) unit into CAES, several limitations of an A-CAES unit, such as its conversion process mode, dynamic characteristics, power input/output constraints of compressor/turbine train, air pressure constraint, and thermal storage capacity limitations are considered. An HES consisting of PV, A-CAES, and grid to answer the building's electric demand is simulated. The results are validated against data from an existing A-CAES pilot. It is concluded that adopting features and capacity limitations of the A-CAES system's power conversion unit in operational strategies contributes to improved management of energy flow in HES. It is observed that for certain air tank volume and maximum/minimum pressures under I-EMOS, an enhanced performance can be achieved. This analysis presents a feasibility assessment approach for decentralized A-CAES integrated with renewables implemented and tested in a real-world case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]