China has connected the world’s biggest flywheel system to its national grid.
Built in the city of Changzhi, Shanxi Province, the $48m Dinglun Flywheel Energy Storage Power Station can store 30MW of energy in kinetic form, the Interesting Engineering website reports.
The station has 120 heavy wheels spinning at high speed on magnetic bearings in a vacuum, which minimises the energy lost to friction.
Groups of 10 flywheels form a “frequency regulation unit”, and 12 of these form the array that connect to the grid at a voltage of 110kV.
The array is located partially underground to increase safety, since flywheels can travel for long distances if they ever break free.
The amount of energy stored in the unit could power about 2,000 households for a year. Watch a video showing the scheme here.
The project, which broke ground in July last year, was built as a pilot by the Shanxi Power Engineering Institute and Shanxi Electric Power Construction. BC New Energy was the technology provider and Shenzhen Energy Group was the principal investor.
The Dinglung project takes the title of world’s biggest flywheel system from the 20MW Beacon Power flywheel station in Stephentown, New York. This went live in 2014 and cost $52m to build.
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