Cooling the flywheel energy storage

How does a flywheel energy storage system work?

Flywheel Energy Storage Systems (FESS) rely on a mechanical working principle: An electric motor is used to spin a rotor of high inertia up to 20,000-50,000 rpm. Electrical energy is thus converted to kinetic energy for storage. For discharging, the motor acts as a generator, braking the rotor to produce electricity.

How do flywheels store kinetic energy?

Flywheels store rotational kinetic energy in the form of a spinning cylinder or disc, then use this stored kinetic energy to regenerate electricity at a later time. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel depends on the dimensions of the flywheel, its mass, and the rate at which it spins. Increasing a flywheel’s rotational speed is the most

How can flywheels be more competitive to batteries?

The use of new materials and compact designs will increase the specific energy and energy density to make flywheels more competitive to batteries. Other opportunities are new applications in energy harvest, hybrid energy systems, and flywheel’s secondary functionality apart from energy storage.

Could flywheels be the future of energy storage?

Flywheels, one of the earliest forms of energy storage, could play a significant role in the transformation of the electrical power system into one that is fully sustainable yet low cost.

What is a flywheel energy storage system (fess)?

According to Al-Diab (2011) the flywheel energy storage system (FESS) could be exploited beneficially in dealing with many technical issues that appear regularly in distribution grids such as voltage support, grid frequency support, power quality improvement and unbalanced load compensation.

How much energy does a flywheel store?

Indeed, the development of high strength, low-density carbon fiber composites (CFCs) in the 1970s generated renewed interest in flywheel energy storage. Based on design strengths typically used in commercial flywheels, σ max /ρ is around 600 kNm/kg for CFC, whereas for wrought flywheel steels, it is around 75 kNm/kg.