Recognizing spin when you see it.

[rcavictim]

Next month, New York State will have a completed 20 megawatt flywheel energy storage system connected to its electrical grid to provide frequency regulation and help maintain the stability of the electrical grid.  Oh oh, theres that twinge from flywheel envy kicking in again. 

http://www.ecogeek.org/power-storage/3531

[LowGear]

I hate being naive.  I bought it and still do. 

Perhaps this is a way to store solar for those lonely evenings.  Yes, I realize that is not what this plant is designed to do.  When we installed our SunnyBoy inverter the power company required that it's frequency monitoring program that kicks the inverter into standby be loosened up by +- 1 hertz so clouds would cause an inverter brown out.  These flywheels seem like they would be really nice for this sort of short term fluctuation.

Casey

[veggie]

Perhaps a good solution for the problems associated with wind power.
We can't always use the power when the wind blows......and we sometimes need more power when the wind is not blowing.
Good to see this kind of innovation.

veggie

[DanG]

Enercon direct-drive wind turbines have had composite-flywheel magnetic-bearing vacuum-sealed storage since at least 2003, I think they started trying a smaller unit actually in the generator cowl to provide control power and went on to shipping container sized 200kw/5kWh units... Note that similar flywheel blast housing and blue color in Becon's installation from this picture I lifted from http://www.enercon.de/en-en/19.htm. about 2004.. Likely that NY project is sourced from Enercon in Germany.

Yes. I would dearly love to have some 20' cube containers out back with a cluster of those units in them.

[BioHazard]

Just how heavy of flywheels are we talking here and what are they made of? I thought a house sized flywheel powered UPS system would be way cool for switching between gen power and utility...but thought the flywheel would have to be something impossibly large...

[Horsepoor]

I have been following this technology very closely for several years hoping for a consumer version to replace batteries.

A company of great interest is Beacon Power:
http://www.beaconpower.com/products/smart-energy-25.asp

Here is section from their R & D papers:

At the heart of Beacon's Smart Energy 25 flywheel is a patented high-strength carbonfiber
composite rim, supported by a metal hub and shaft, with a motor/generator on the
shaft. Together the rim, hub, shaft and motor/generator assembly form the rotor. To
nearly eliminate friction, the rotor is sealed in a strong vacuum chamber and levitated
magnetically.

The rotor spins between 8,000 and 16,000 rpm. When absorbing energy, the flywheel's
motor acts like a load and draws power from the grid to accelerate the rotor to higher
speed. When discharging, the motor switches into generator mode, and the inertial energy
of the rotor drives the generator, creating electricity that is injected back into the grid as
the rotor slows down. At 16,000 rpm, a single Smart Energy 25 flywheel can deliver 25
kilowatt-hours (kWh) of extractable energy at a 100 kW power level for 15 minutes.
Multiple flywheels are connected in parallel to provide any desired megawatt-level power
capacity. A 20 MW energy storage plant consists of 200 such flywheels.

I wish I could buy an affordable 25 kW flywheel system. Picture your 6/1 driving the flywheel for a couple of hours a day, or your solar system doing the same.

Bruce

[LowGear]

So real magnet bearing systems are immune to Sun activity and big explosions?  Spin is what spin does.

Casey

[rcavictim]

So real magnet bearing systems are immune to Sun activity and big explosions?

Casey

Immunity is a matter of degrees.  If the sun goes nova (qualifies as both Sun activity and big explosion) magnetic bearings based on perm magnets ain't gonna be immune. 

The flywheel MG set has windings which are susceptible to burn out from EMP just like a transformer would be.  The housing is likely steel and a pretty fair Faraday cage so disconnecting any wires coming into and out of it ought protect it if the EMP is expected in advance.

[RogerAS]

snip...

  If the sun goes nova (qualifies as both Sun activity and big explosion) magnetic bearings based on perm magnets ain't gonna be immune. 
snip...

Our sun is far too small to go nova. Our sun will undergo the transformation into a white dwarf after going through a red giant phase wherein it will inflate to a size that may exceed the orbit of the earth. The earth will have vaporized long before that point. Just wait around another 2 or 3 billion years!

RS

[rcavictim]

snip...

  If the sun goes nova (qualifies as both Sun activity and big explosion) magnetic bearings based on perm magnets ain't gonna be immune. 
snip...

Our sun is far too small to go nova. Our sun will undergo the transformation into a white dwarf after going through a red giant phase wherein it will inflate to a size that may exceed the orbit of the earth. The earth will have vaporized long before that point. Just wait around another 2 or 3 billion years!

RS

Well that's a big load off my mind!