ARRA SDGP Amber Kinetics, Inc. (Flywheel Energy Storage Demonstration)

Amber Kinetics developed a flywheel system from sub-scale research prototype to full-scale mechanical flywheel battery and conducted both a commercial-scale and a utility-scale demonstration. The goal was to deliver a cost-effective prototype flywheel system that could be grid connected and electrically charged and discharged. The system had built-in sensing components that could determine frequency and voltage characteristics of the grid and could override the grid signal to manage the amount of electricity discharged. The flywheel stored energy in a spinning rotor that was connected to an electric motor that converted electrical energy into mechanical energy. To recover the energy the motor was electrically reversed and used as a generator to slow down the flywheel converting the mechanical energy back into electrical energy. Amber Kinetics improved the traditional flywheel system by engineering breakthroughs in three areas, resulting in higher efficiency and radically reduced cost: magnetic bearings, low-cost rotor, and high-efficiency motor generator. This technology can also be used to optimize existing infrastructure.