flywheels to balance the grid

[doug]

Beacon Power puts new spin on clean energy | NECN

Beacon Power

 

[doug]

One megawatt of grid storage, 10 big flywheels | Green Tech - CNET News.com

The company's carbon fiber flywheels, which are one meter in diameter, spin constantly at up to 16,000 revolutions per minute--a surface speed of about Mach 2, Beacon CEO William Capp explained Friday. Each 8,000-pound unit can provide 100 kilowatts of electricity for 15 minutes.

 

[doug]

Mass. company’s spinning flywheels to store, pace electric energy and make grid greener

Beacon Power’s flywheels — each weighing one ton, levitating in a sealed chamber and spinning up to 16,000 times per minute — will make the electric grid more efficient and green, the company says. It’s being given a chance to prove it: the U.S. Department of Energy has granted Beacon a $43 million conditional loan guarantee to construct a 20-megawatt flywheel plant in upstate New York.

 

[johnr]

Interesting stuff. In the quest to improve the reliability and efficiency of the electrical grid, and reduce its environmental impact, it seems these flywheels will be a big help - but I'm sure this is something that's typically overlooked by those of us who are not in-the-know. Thanks for sharing, Doug.

 

[dpeilow]

This isn't that new an idea. One of the datacentre sites that I evaluated for our current project was using flywheels as UPSs. It sounds like this company has refined the technology a little, though.

This shows that some datacentres have installations that are of the same order of magnitude as the proposed demonstration plant.

 

[edo]

This isn't that new an idea.

You're right, its not new. What's new are the technologies that rival Li-ion

 

[doug]

No, nothing new. I made this thread about a year ago (and another more recently) since grid storage is becoming more important with the increased use of intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

As a physics guy, I like flywheels since they're relatively simple and something I can thoroughly understand (batteries on the other hand... ). As mechanical devices, I wonder how long they last in practice. These flywheels are a lot like the turbomolecular vacuum pumps I've used. They're happiest at a constant speed, spin in vacuum at tangential velocities above Mach 2, and fail really spectacularly.

 

[SByer]

Video or it didn't happen! ;-)
Really, I can just imagine, and I think it's be cool to see from an "I love explosions" angle.

Of course, in saying "rival Li-ion", we know why it's unsuitable for mobile applications, right? That would make a really funny video, though...

 

[edo]

Of course, in saying "rival Li-ion", we know why it's unsuitable for mobile applications, right? That would make a really funny video, though...

Are you referring to the Gyroscopic effect? Actually, I think I remember there being some buses using flywheels to store electricity.

The gyroscopic effect can be counteracted by using counter-rotating flywheels. then you can get some interesting effects by having a control to unbalance them. (talk about cornering:biggrin