Eco Factor: Flywheel-based energy storage system to provide frequency regulation services.
The U.S. Department of Energy has guaranteed a $43 million loan to Beacon Power Corporation to construct the world’s first 20MW flywheel plant in Stephentown, New York. The company believes that there is no better way to provide efficient, grid-scale frequency regulation that their flywheel electricity storage systems.
The systems works by accelerating a rotor to very high speeds, maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy, which is converted back to electricity by slowing down the flywheel. The plant will provide frequency regulation services to help improve and maintain the stability of New York mains power grid and allow greater use of renewable energy.
The flywheel batteries will absorb electricity from the grid when there is too much of it and will use it when the demand outruns the supply. The company states that 30 to 50MW of fast-response energy storage can be expected to produce the same regulation effect as a 100MW combustion turbine. The first phase of the project, which calls for the development of 4MW storage flywheel batteries, is expected to be online by the end of the year, with the remainder being available in the first quarter of next year.
Via: Energy Matters
