Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment Will Soon Be Banned In Cali, a broad category that includes generators.

[MurphyGuy]

The Next Frontier in Energy Storage | Amber Kinetics

amberkinetics.com

Not really seeing it as a domestic solution. 100W self discharge, 86% round trip efficiency. ~A$48k for 32kWh. That's ~50% more expensive than commercial domestic batteries, and multiple times the cost per kWh of DIY LiFePO4 set up.

Its supposed to be $325/kWh which works out to 32kw x $325 = $10400 for a system that has a design life of 30 years.

And this is just one of the first.. wait until some competition comes out.

If they returned their phone calls, I'd write them a $20k check tomorrow and have two of them shipped here.

 

[wattmatters]

Its supposed to be $325/kWh

That's what's been promised for the last 5 years. In 2017 Amber Kinetics themselves stated A$1,500/kWh.

https://www.unisa.edu.au/contentassets/2bc25769d2c046db9f287607a305901b/iff-20171108-flywheel-energy-storage-system.pdf

Here's story on a school installation, it's about 2.5 hours drive from where I am:

Local school to pioneer energy transfer technology in Australia

"The project is not just about generating more energy but storing it more efficiently."

www.armidaleexpress.com.au

 

[MurphyGuy]

That's what's been promised for the last 5 years. In 2017 Amber Kinetics themselves stated A$1,500/kWh.

https://www.unisa.edu.au/contentassets/2bc25769d2c046db9f287607a305901b/iff-20171108-flywheel-energy-storage-system.pdf

Here's story on a school installation, it's about 2.5 hours drive from where I am:

Local school to pioneer energy transfer technology in Australia

"The project is not just about generating more energy but storing it more efficiently."

www.armidaleexpress.com.au

I'd like to get an update on its real world performance.. Tried searching but no luck.

 

[Batvette]

Thats all fine and dandy until it smokes a bearing and takes out half the house. Even with some kind of safety cage, the amount of damage and destruction it could do to itself is mind boggling. Anything with moving parts is a risk. Add the stored kinetic energy of a massive flywheel and every failure is huge.
Can you imagine a giant industrial one getting loose? If it got on edge might roll through several counties- hell, states, before it stopped.
At least when the media blamed climate change for the disaster theyd be right for once.

 

[wattmatters]

I'd like to get an update on its real world performance.. Tried searching but no luck.

Being a small scale storage system for private use, there would be no data in the public domain other than what any enquiring reporter might publish or the school might release as PR statements. Grid scale storage would have their performance data available.

Perhaps write to the school?

 

[wattmatters]

Can you imagine a giant industrial one getting loose?

Yeah, I can and it's not good, e.g. while not a storage system but a generation plant, the failure at the Callide coal power plant is a recent example of a turbine going poopie in its pants.

Photo reveals 'catastrophic' damage to Callide Power Station that blacked out Queensland

A 300-kilogram piece of shrapnel is removed from the roof of the Callide Power Station in central Queensland after a recent explosion that blacked out more than 470,000 homes and business across the state.

www.abc.net.au

Which is one reason why these domestic level flywheel storage systems mentioned above are buried in the ground.

At grid scale there are synchronous condensers with flywheels used to help stabilise grids which themselves don't generate power, rather they provide a source of system inertia to rapidly absorb or release energy as required. South Australia has recently added some to their grid and they enable the amount of standby gas generation to be reduced significantly and reduce system operating costs significantly. These are, naturally, inside commercial buildings in more remote locations on the transmission grid. They weigh ~ 170 tonnes each.

Renewables rollout bolstered by system 'shock absorbers' in South Australia

Five years on from South Australia's statewide blackout, technology to further stabilise the energy grid has been successfully installed at two sites in the state's north.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Ai4px]

Hey I just got a EGO z6 52" mower. Was looking at the charge plug and it seems to be a Anderson Power Pole 75amp with data pins. The plug housing has them listed as D- and D+. Not sure if EGO uses RS485 to talk to the charger though, might just be a remnant of the APP design of that housing... dunno.... food for thought.