Batteries, shmatteries!! - Who needs batteries when you can have:-

[Crossy]

Two tons of steel whizzing round at rather a lot of RPM and storing 32kWh of energy!

 

https://amberkinetics.com/product/

 

https://amberkinetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Amber-Kinetics-DataSheet.pdf

 

 

 

[MJCM]

In the voice of @Crossy spoken, "I Want one" ????

[VocalNeal]

Williams had a flywheel device for LeMans cars more than a few years ago. There was also a flywheel bus.

[Enoon]

I tried the website but got a warning not to proceed.

 

I was interested to see if it used superconductive magnetic bearings.

 

1993:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0964180793904252

 

"These experiments point the way to large rotor levitation of 10–100 kg in the near term and 1000 kg rotors in the not too distant future"

 

 

 

[MJCM]

3 minutes ago, Enoon said:

I tried the website but got a warning not to proceed.

It is just an expired Certificate (expired 28th December), I think it will be fixed next week ????

[BritManToo]

Imagine the bang when the bearings seize!

Or any other catastrophic failure.

[MJCM]

10 minutes ago, Enoon said:

I was interested to see if it used superconductive magnetic bearings.

Here the PDF from the site

Amber-Kinetics-DataSheet.pdf

 

[Led Lolly Yellow Lolly]

The problem with these things is they have to be buried deep underground in reinforced concrete chambers. Any failure of the flywheel will be catastrophic. Anyone with any common sense will NOT want 32 kWh of energy being released in one go, anywhere near their house. It would be like a car hitting your house at Mach 7 (I haven't done the maths but you get the picture).

 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

Yeah, having seen what the relatively tiny rotor of a gyro stabilisation system does to the innards of the stabiliser itself when the bearings failed (it was doing 24,000 RPM at the time) I certainly wouldn't be wanting one above ground.

 

The ones on the website don't appear to be in much in the way of containment other than being buried.

 

[Led Lolly Yellow Lolly]

Even when buried, the shock of a failure radiating through the ground can damage building foundations. It's essentially a bomb. I think it would be a struggle to make it practical, safe and cost effective in a domestic setting.

 

 

 

[888huahin]

Seen this type of technology before, about 40yrs ago, it was used to as a sort of mechanical UPS to power the UK 50volt Telephone System, these Flywheels needed to buried under ground because of the huge amounts of kinetic energy and sat on floating magnetic bearings, next to no friction, no power loss, might even be spinning in a vacuum.

 

It makes sense Battery storage is very expensive, inefficient and  environmentally unfriendly.

 

 

 

 

[Muhendis]

If you had enough of these whizzing around clockwise in the northern hemisphere would it affect the tilt of the Earth?

[talahtnut]

Atmospheric electricity is the future, see Tesla.

[MJCM]

3 hours ago, Led Lolly Yellow Lolly said:

. I think it would be a struggle to make it practical, safe and cost effective in a domestic setting.

 

I agree, but they said that about almost everything. Take a look at when the first PC (as big as a House) came and now we have one (with even more processing power) in our back pocket.

 

Give it time give it time ????

[Muhendis]

Enough of all this high tech.

Take a look at how to pump water (after priming) without power;

 

[blackcab]

Why is it that I see that, and I think of this:

 

 

[Muhendis]

11 minutes ago, blackcab said:

Why is it that I see that, and I think of this:

 

 

Not too serious.

Door switch failed.

Question is, was that rusty old bit of metal clean afterwards?

[tjo o tjim]

Having dealt with various flywheel systems over the years (Piller, Hitec, Active Power, and the one that was originally for hybrid busses), they have come a long way. 12MWs was doable and reliable 10 years ago, and maintenance was reasonable.  
 

That said, hard to beat LFP batteries today.