Quote:
Originally Posted by puddleglum
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.
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Flywheel storage is, of course, used in every engine (and most dramatically in singles) to carry the engine through the exhaust, intake, and compression strokes. So the idea has not died out, it has just found the niches where it works economically.
The UPS market is one where there could be continued growth in flywheel application. Grid load leveling is another potential market. However, batteries are much more economical as a storage method right now. (I could not possibly consider flywheel storage as a serious competitive technology as part of my plug-in hybrid... it would triple the cost of the car.) Flywheels are already at a very high level of development, so no one is forecasting a large drop in price ($/kilowatt-hour storage). Batteries are, however, expected to drop in price to about 1/3 their current price.
LithiumX batteries in cars can be expected to last about 10 years, which for that market is acceptable life. In a home installation, however, it would be nice to have longer life, so a flywheel system to store solar and wind energy from a home installation (for later use in the home or for use by others via the grid) could have some appeal, even if the system costs twice as much as a battery system.
In vehicles, a flywheel's tendency to maintain its orientation in space is potentially problematic (because the instantaneous bearing loads can be so high over bumps etc.) However, if
Lit Motors is successful, they will translate this potential problem into an asset.