The flywheel module would be capable of storing four times the energy at one eighth of the cost per energy unit, compared with the company’s current Gen 4 flywheel.
Flywheel energy-storage systems work by accelerating a cylindrical assembly, called a rotor or flywheel, to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. The energy is converted back by slowing down the flywheel. The flywheel system itself is a kinetic or mechanical battery that spins at very high speeds to store energy that is instantly available when needed.
The proposed 100kWh system will use a ’flying ring’ − a lightweight hoop of co-mingled fibre composite with bonded magnetic materials mounted on the structure. This configuration eliminates the need for a central shaft and hub, increasing energy density to 76Wh/kg.
The developers of the flywheel also aim to make it capable of more than 40,000 full charge/discharge cycles in its lifetime, thereby achieving a cost per storage cycle below $0.025/kWh (£0.017/kWh).
’If successful, the development of the flywheel will open up a number of new, commercially attractive applications and markets for clean, long-life flywheel-based energy storage,’ said Bill Capp, Beacon’s president and chief executive officer.
If it were to be eventually commercialised, Beacon expects that the flywheel system would be suitable for a variety of applications, including wind-diesel-storage hybrid systems.
Climate change and safe burial of carbon dioxide: the world’s biggest miner to the fore
Dr Bryan Lovell, Thankyou for this review. Puts all the emotional non thinkers to shame, for it exposes more of the truth (it seems, from your...