Role of Flywheel Batteries in Energy Storage System - A Review

In flywheel-based energy storage systems, a flywheel stores mechanical energy that interchanges in form of electrical energy by means of an electrical machine with a bidirectional power converter. Flywheel based energy storage systems are suitable whenever numerous charge and discharge cycles (hundreds of thousands) are needed with medium to high power (kW to MW) during short periods (seconds). The materials for the flywheel, the type of electrical machine, the type of bearings and the confinement atmosphere determine the energy efficiency (>;85%) of the flywheel-based energy storage systems. A flywheel stores mechanical energy that is converted to electrical energy by an electrical machine with a reciprocal power converter in flywheel-based energy storage systems. Flywheel-based energy storage systems are ideal for applications that need a large number of charge and discharge cycles (hundreds of thousands) with medium to high power (kW to MW) over a short period of time (seconds).