Can flywheel energy storage be commercially viable?

This project explored flywheel energy storage R&D to reach commercial viability for utility scale energy storage. This required advancing the design, manufacturing capability, system cost, storage capacity, efficiency, reliability, safety, and system level operation of flywheel energy storage technology.

What makes a safe flywheel system?

Robust system design, in combination with the use of certified critical materials, relevant quality control measures and documentation, are the basis for the construction of safe flywheel systems. These can be certified by appropriate independent parties as in the manufacture of many other products.

What is a flywheel energy storage system (fess)?

Flywheel Energy Storage Systems (FESS) play an important role in the energy storage business. Its ability to cycle and deliver high power, as well as, high power gradients makes them superior for storage applications such as frequency regulation, voltage support and power firming.

Are flywheels safe?

The safety design criteria were validated though a series of induced failures and overstress events. The flywheels were completely tolerant of a number of fault scenarios such as a loss of vacuum, loss of power, and overspeed; they survived these types of events without damage and were easily put back into service.

Can flywheels save energy?

Installing 100 MW’s worth of flywheels used for distribution can reduce demand charges by $36 million and provide $8 million of energy savings a year since the FESS can eliminate mid-day peak and evening peaks of electricity use. Lithium battery technology can only do one peak reduction a day.

How many units can a flywheel control?

In the lab, Amber Kinetics’ flywheel management system demonstrated the capability to simultaneously control 32 units. The concept of operating multiple units on a common DC bus to share power and maintain SOC balance was demonstrated.