5 ms·
Flywheels target a bit of a different problem than many other energy storage solutions. They are only able to store energy for very short periods. This is valua
by hannob 11y ago
Flywheels target a bit of a different problem than many other energy storage solutions. They are only able to store energy for very short periods. This is valuable to counter short term changes in the power generation, but it won't help you to store solar power for longer dark periods.
Wikipedia has some info about existing installations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_storage_power_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_storage_power_system
tl;dr Only a few of them exist, they haven't been installed in large quantities yet.
- masklinn 11y ago> They are only able to store energy for very short periods. Your own link quotes self-discharge rates of 5%/day (for high-vacuum wheels I assume), that's more than sufficient for daily solar storage.
- wglb 11y agoI would consider that to be short-term storage. Long Dark periods could be weeks.
- masklinn 11y ago"Short term changes in power generation" are not day-scale, what you consider to be short-term storage has very little to do with the comment I replied to, or with the original article.
- debacle 11y agoEven a long dark period would see very little discharge. The flywheel would take a trickle of power (enough that a human being could generate, if necessary) to maintain their energy.