What is the difference between a flywheel and a battery storage system?

Flywheel Systems are more suited for applications that require rapid energy bursts, such as power grid stabilization, frequency regulation, and backup power for critical infrastructure. Battery Storage is typically a better choice for long-term energy storage, such as for renewable energy systems (solar or wind) or home energy storage.

How can flywheels be more competitive to batteries?

The use of new materials and compact designs will increase the specific energy and energy density to make flywheels more competitive to batteries. Other opportunities are new applications in energy harvest, hybrid energy systems, and flywheel’s secondary functionality apart from energy storage.

How does Flywheel energy storage work?

Flywheel energy storage (FES) works by accelerating a rotor (flywheel) to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy.

Do flywheels store more energy?

The laws of physics (explained briefly in the box below—but you can skip them if you're not interested or you know about them already) tell us that large diameter and heavy wheels store more energy than smaller and lighter wheels, while flywheels that spin faster store much more energy than ones that spin slower.

Can flywheels store energy from a wind power system?

The first study combined flywheels with lead-acid batteries to store energy from a wind power system. This combination utilized the quick response time of a flywheel and the longer discharge duration of a battery. This prompted common use of flywheels in conjunction with batteries as a quick-burst power option.

Why is a flywheel considered a dynamic storage system?

Because a flywheel must be accelerated by an external force before it will store energy, it is considered a “dynamic” storage system. The rate at which the flywheel spins remains nearly constant because of the vacuum-like container, which prevents friction from slowing the revolution.