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Old 03-09-2012, 11:06 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by puddleglum View Post
I'm quite sure that the flywheel in the Pinto was running in a vacuum and had magnetic bearings. I'm sure the up front cost would be very high and I'm also guessing that any hard acceleration would kill it pretty quick. Still, it should virtually last forever with almost no maintenance. There have been many seemingly great ideas that, for whatever reason haven't made it into the hands of the general public. I'm assuming flywheel energy storage is just another one.
It's probably because batteries had more potential, with plenty of room for improvement in energy density.

It was probably felt there was a reasonable limit to how big and how fast you could make a flywheel, and that would quickly be met.
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