Flywheel Energy Storage How It Works

The flywheel system operates in the high vacuum environment.

Flywheel energy storage how it works.

Photo by warren gretz courtesy of us doe nrel. Magnetic bearings are composed of permanent magnets that use repulsive force to keep the flywheel s weight suspended while it is stabilized with the use of electromagnets. When energy is extracted from the system the flywheel s rotational speed is reduced as a consequence of the principle of conservation of energy. Here a flywheel right is being used to store electricity produced by a solar panel.

2 the rotor is often made from new materials such as carbon or glass fibers or kevlar which withstand very high speeds better than traditional metals. Flywheel energy storage is a promising technology for replacing conventional lead acid batteries as energy storage systems. The energy storage itself is performed using a three phase igbt based pwm inverter rectifier setup. Because the wire has almost no resistance it stores current with almost no loss.

You can change the machine s preserved power by applying a torque to grow or reduce its rotational speed. Flywheel energy storage uses electric motors to drive the flywheel to rotate at a high speed so that the electrical power is transformed into mechanical power and stored and when necessary flywheels drive generators to generate power. How flywheels work modern flywheel energy storage systems generally take the form of a cylinder known as a rotor enclosed in a sealed vacuum chamber to eliminate air friction. In batteries initially energy is stored by other electrical energy sources or energy is stored from a result of some chemical reaction.

Most modern high speed flywheel energy storage systems fess consist of a huge rotating cylinder supported on a stator the stationary part of a rotary system by magnetically levitated bearings. 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. It stores energy in the form of kinetic energy and works by accelerating a rotor to very high speeds and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. The stored energy is proportionate to the square of the speed of the rotation.

During spikes loops of wire take up extra current and during dips the loops return the current to the grid. When the electricity is needed the flywheel drives the generator and produces electricity again. Adding energy to the system correspondingly results in an increase in the speed of the flywheel. A flywheel is a machine that reserves rotational energy by resisting changes in rotation speed.

The electricity from the panel drives an electric motor generator that spins the flywheel up to speed.