Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
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Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#2Wasn't aware blackouts were a significant problem in the UK. Great device for moving away from fossil fuels though
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#3Same article, no registration required. This site touts "Powered by The Guardian" and does not appear to be a scraper:
http://www.execreview.com/2020/07/giant-flywheel-project-in-...
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#4> This is the first time a project of this kind will be used anywhere in the world and ESO believes it could be a “huge step forward” in running a zero-carbon electricity grid.
I'm trying to find some stats on this, because flywheel UPS aren't a new idea:
https://www.finning.com/en_IE/products/new/power-systems/ele...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_storage_power_system#...
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#5Wasn't aware blackouts were a significant problem in the UK. Great device for moving away from fossil fuels though
They aren't particularly, but there was a fairly large one last year, and grid stability is become harder as more and more of its energy comes from renewables (as the article mentions, the grid is favoring fossil fuel power sometimes in order to keep things stable).
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#6Framing a flywheel as a "simulation of a turbine" is really bizarre, unless there's something quite weird about this particular flywheel that the article fails to make clear.
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#7well, assuming scotland doesn't leave...
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#8This is a consequence of the UK having little capacity for pumped-storage, i.e. hydro-electric. We don't really have the height, and we have "areas of outstanding natural beauty" that cannot be built in easily, so we need alternatives to store the energy.
The rest of the world just builds a dam, creates a new lake, and moves on.
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#9Framing a flywheel as a "simulation of a turbine" is really bizarre, unless there's something quite weird about this particular flywheel that the article fails to make clear.
It is to mimic the spinning turbine generators, which themselves act as flywheels, but in this case without the turbine part. The rotational inertia gives stability in that the frequency cannot suddenly change. I thought that was quite clear from the article?
Re: Giant flywheel project in Scotland could prevent UK blackouts
#10> This is the first time a project of this kind will be used anywhere in the world and ESO believes it could be a “huge step forward” in running a zero-carbon electricity grid. I'm trying to find some stats on this, because flywheel UPS aren't a new idea: https://www.finning.com/en_IE/products/new/power-systems/ele... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_storage_power_system#...
What is different in this case is it is not really an energy storage system (at least that is not the main intended purpose), but only to provide stability to the grid frequency. A huge flywheel in a vacuum to provide a reference to millions of distributed PLLs. I don't think the idea is to always have it spin at a fixed rate with minimal losses.
In the case where a flywheel is used as a UPS, the rate at which it is spinning will vary in accordance with the stored energy.