With rising awareness of the consequences of climate change and the instability of oil and natural gas in the current geopolitical climate, the renewable energy industry has had a massive boom. As governments race to begin their transition to more sustainable sources of energy that can allow them to be self-reliant, there has never been a clearer need for innovative technologies in this space.
Skilled engineers all over the world are working to create new energy solutions and make renewable energy an efficient method of powering modern urban cities. From better solar panels, sleeker wind turbines to technological advances in the hydroelectric and geothermal sector, sourcing renewable energy has been the main focus of the energy market for decades.
But there’s a gap in the renewable energy technologies that haven’t been as thoroughly addressed by now. The problem consists of a way to efficiently store the energy generated for future use on a large scale. Something like storing energy to power a whole city. There are some solutions today that can address this issue. But they are not efficient.
For example, traditional Li-ion batteries, have been already used to store solar and wind power. Hydroelectric power is also an industry standard. However, lawmakers often find these methods of energy storage to be cumbersome to install and operate, producing an insufficient return compared to the investment.
Traditional energy storage solutions consisting of lithium-ion batteries is made out of lithium-ion – commonly seen in many electronics, including smartphones. As consumers quickly found out when their devices overheated, these batteries are highly corrosive, easy to decay, and are susceptible to high temperatures.
When chemical batteries decay, they release toxic chemicals, which can contaminate groundwater and soil and pose a hazard for animals and people, only serving to hurt the environment more in the pursuit of clean energy. Pumped hydrogen storage, while not corrosive, is only available in places with large water availability and can create issues for fish and other aquatic creatures living in these habitats.
A more innovative, efficient, and environmentally-friendly storage solution is required for an industry that is focused on greener technologies and clean energy.
This is the power of Amber Kinetics’ flywheel technology, an innovative Kinetic Energy Storage Solution (KESS). As the leaders of the KESS industry and the engineers of the worlds first and only large-scale flywheel-based energy storage, Amber Kinetics’ design is one of a kind.
The revolutionary (no pun intended) invention is based on a technology that has been used for centuries, updated to become more efficient, and handled the modern energy grid. The flywheel is a large wheel placed in a low-friction environment, like a basin, and attached to a rotor.
As energy from a primary source, such as the sun, wind, or geothermal power, enters the rotor, the flywheel begins to spin, creating kinetic energy and only losing very little of this energy due to friction. When the power grid receives that energy, the flywheel slows down, transforming kinetic energy into electrical energy.
Unlike chemical batteries, flywheels do not degrade over time, can function in a large range of temperatures, and are made of recyclable, environmentally-friendly steel.
Flywheel technologies are not limited by location or other available resources like water and have low operation and management costs due to their ease of maintenance. With the ability to scale up the power of a singular unit – currently able to store 32 kilowatt-hours of energy – to large grids that can store 10000 kilowatt-hours, are prepared to handle the modern city’s energy needs.
New ideas are taking hold in the rapidly changing energy market and revolutionizing the way we think about sustaining our future cities. Despite the titans of fossil fuels consistently trying to halt this progress, there is hope for technological advances in green energy. In many ways, the success of Amber Kinetics is a giant step in the right direction.