Using a Flywheel to Store Electricity
So, I think a lot these days about electricity, alternative power generation methods and storing that electricity. It seems that we (man that is) has been pretty complacent when it comes to finding new ways to store electricity. Seems pretty counter intuitive to me when you consider that the items we are integrating into our daily lives more and more require a power cord to be connected to them at some point. Some of the things that I have thought quite a bit about are things like pumping water into a tower to be used to push a turbine later when power is needed. It turns out this is probably the most widely used, large-scale, power storage method in use today. They don’t pump water into a tower, rather water is pumped into large cavities like mines or resevoirs. But, the coolest thing I have seen is using a flywheel to store electricity. Apparently it is one of the most efficient methods of storing large amounts of electricity for short or long term applications. I somehow stumbled upon this today while thinking about storing electricity. Beacon Power has a test flywheel array at PG&E’s San Ramon, CA testing facility. I may have to go over there and check this thing out. A low power motor is used to spool up the flywheel slowly (as there is no need to do it quickly) and maintain the high speed that it spins at. A vacum surrounds the flywheel to help reduce friction from air and magnet bearings reduce friction allowing for a more efficient design, less maintenance and a longer useful life.
Pretty damn cool.
[tags]Electricity, Flywheels, Batteries, Storing Electricity, PG&E, Beacon Power[/tags]
July 12th, 2008 at 7:09 am
At least 30 years ago, I read in Popular Science a great article with ideas for community use of flywheel stored energy. There was a simple very low ramp (less than a speedbump) in the road that pumped the action of a flywheel every time a car drove over it. This turned a large spool of wire that could then be released (?) to produce electricity when it was needed. Anybody else remember that article? I would love to see it again!
April 18th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I have been searching for the holy grail of free energy now for many years. This is in relation to an invention that I designed more than thirty years ago and funny as it is I have never read anything remotely close to this in any way shape or form during the last thirty years so I figure I might as well put this out there for others to see and digress. I’m not worried about patents or anything but would like to hear of anyone who is … or maybe already has investigated a similar idea. It goes like this. Take the concept of the aircraft carriers rubber band launching system. I’m just using rubber band loosely so take it with a grain of salt everyone. Now reverse the idea. Take a huge recoil (duplicate a lawnmower recoil) and put it on a huge flywheel and support the flywheel on magnetic bearings. Put the flywheel in a vacuum if you like and eliminate the friction of air. Leave only the output/input shaft exposed. Now mount this flywheel in a hole in the ground under your driveway furthest from your street, with the handle of your recoil at the center of the driveway (sideways). Now make a slot that runs down the center of your driveway and have your handle sit in this slot. Make the handle such that it has a catch and your vehicle also has a catch underneath. When you come home and park, the catch on the handle meshes with the catch on the car. When you pull out of your driveway your car pulls the handle… spinning the flywheel… running a generator or other devices. If you could build a flywheel of sufficient mass and proper balance that is would continue to spin useably for say forty eight hours… then you have energy that is not necessarily free but is otherwise just wasted. If you lived in the northern climates as I do you could build this so that it would heat your driveway and you would never have to shovel it. The nice thing about this is it is relatively simple. Essentially three components… a flywheel, a recoil and whatever charging system you like to use. Almost everybody has one vehicle in the driveway and if everyone built one of these… I could just imagine!