Solar Flywheel - Low-cost Flywheel Storage System

A further development of volatile renewable energies significantly depends on the flexibility of the whole electricity supply system and therefore requires possibilities for smart load management as well as the decentralized storage of electric energy. Especially the technology for efficient storage system within the range of 5 kWh to 50 kWh, to use them as short- and middle-term storage which can fulfil these requirements are currently insufficiently developed. The aim of this project is to prove the feasibility of a low-cost flywheel storage system (LCSS), to be used as storage for the decentralized production and consumption of renewable energies. The physical storage concept of a LCSS is similar to the concept of flywheels developed so far (electrical energy is stored as kinetic energy), but the focus lies on a consequent cost reduction to ensure widespread usage of the technology. The consortium plans to combine the well-known advantages of existing flywheel energy storage technologies – such as a practically non-existent aging (cycle stability), simple determination of the charge state and the possibility to waive limited available or ecologically critical materials - in an innovative and low-cost concept, which makes this technology a potential key technology in the target field of energy storage.