Flywheel energy storage

Flywheel energy storage (FES) works by accelerating a rotor (flywheel) to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. When energy is extracted from the system, the flywheel's rotational speed is reduced as a consequence of the principle of conservation of energy; adding energy to the system correspondingly results in an increase in the speed of the flywheel.

Most FES systems use electricity to accelerate and decelerate the flywheel, but devices that directly use mechanical energy are being developed. Since FES can be used to absorb or release electrical energy, such devices may sometimes be incorrectly and confusingly described as either mechanical or inertia batteries.

Advanced FES systems have rotors made of high strength carbon-fiber composites, suspended by magnetic bearings, and spinning at speeds from 20,000 to over 50,000 rpm in a vacuum enclosure. Such flywheels can come up to speed in a matter of minutes – reaching their energy capacity much more quickly than some other forms of storage.

A typical system consists of a rotor suspended by bearings inside a vacuum chamber to reduce friction, connected to a combination electric motor and electric generator.

First generation flywheel energy storage systems use a large steel flywheel rotating on mechanical bearings. Newer systems use carbon-fiber composite rotors that have a higher tensile strength than steel and are an order of magnitude less heavy.

Magnetic bearings are sometimes used instead of mechanical bearings, to reduce friction.

Other components are and .

The expense of refrigeration led to the early dismissal of low-temperature superconductors for use in magnetic bearings. However, high-temperature superconductor (HTSC) bearings may be economical and could possibly extend the time energy could be stored economically. Hybrid bearing systems are most likely to see use first. High-temperature superconductor bearings have historically had problems providing the lifting forces necessary for the larger designs, but can easily provide a stabilizing force. Therefore, in hybrid bearings, permanent magnets support the load and high-temperature superconductors are used to stabilize it. The reason superconductors can work well stabilizing the load is because they are perfect diamagnets. If the rotor tries to drift off center, a restoring force due to flux pinning restores it. This is known as the magnetic stiffness of the bearing. Rotational axis vibration can occur due to low stiffness and damping, which are inherent problems of superconducting magnets, preventing the use of completely superconducting magnetic bearings for flywheel applications.

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