We live in a world where the future of energy is growing to be less reliant on fossil fuels and where our lives are powered by the sun and the wind – through solar technology and wind turbines. In light of geopolitical tensions, much of the world is recognizing how natural gas is a tenuous resource to rely on. Additionally, as many nations face the consequences of climate change, the race is on to find sources of renewable energy that can power our cities without being reliant on international oil and gas supplies.
But though solar and wind energy technology have been in use for many years, the question of how to store this energy efficiently for later use still remains. After all, the sun doesn’t shine all the time, and high speed winds are hard to predict. How can we take the abundant energy of the natural world around us and harness it to be used whenever we need?
This is the power of Amber Kinetics’ revolutionary energy storage solution – the flywheel. The flywheel is an ancient idea, and one that has been used in many areas of invention, such as public transportation and even roller coasters. The technology’s simplicity is its beauty. In fact, if you’ve ever wound up a toy race car’s wheels, then you’ve harnessed the power of the flywheel. Energy taken from a primary source, like the sun or wind, is used to start accelerating the rotation of the flywheel until it is spinning continuously. This allows solar, wind, or many other forms of electricity, to be stored as kinetic energy – the energy of motion. When energy needs to be extracted for use, the flywheel’s rotations slow down, as it is converting kinetic energy back into electrical energy. It’s similar to a battery, but rather than energy being stored through high-energy chemical reactions – which is why large batteries can be unstable and dangerous – it is stored in a wheel.
Amber Kinetics is the manufacturer of the world’s first and only flywheel-based kinetic energy storage with enough duration and storage to efficiently tackle the needs of the modern energy grid, and the global leader in Kinetic Energy Storage Solutions (KESS). Their innovative flywheel design, known as the Amber Kinetics’ M32, is able to discharge energy for up to four hours each. Each rotor stores up to 32 kilowatt hours of energy in just one unit – more than the amount used to power the average urban household for a day. Amber Kinetics’ ability to group these rotors together and scale up each flywheel to store more than 10,000 kilowatt hours of energy means that this technology could power nearly 350 houses a day.
But remarkable energy storage numbers isn’t the only thing that makes the flywheel a more efficient storage solution than more standard gas plants, hydroelectric plants, or chemical batteries. Unlike chemical batteries, which are prone to degeneration due to their use of corrosive chemical reactions, kinetic energy storage presents a more frictionless (literally) solution. While many other energy storage devices are limited by fears of fire hazards and chemical corrosion, temperature restrictions and short lifespans, Amber Kinetics’ flywheels operate throughout a large temperature range without degradation over time, and thus do not
have high operation and management costs. In this way, flywheels present not only a more energy-efficient solution but also a more cost-effective one. What’s more, they’re designed from safe, recyclable materials that do not require hazardous waste disposal, a fact that makes them highly unique in the energy storage industry.
With constant innovations in the sustainable energy sector, the advent and popularization of electric cars, and global consciousness of the true cost of old habits, it’s time for revolutionary ideas in energy. It’s no surprise that the share of renewables in global energy use was nearly one in three as of 2020, as more countries are enacting policies to expand the use of sustainable energy sources and decrease damaging fossil fuel pollution. Kinetic energy storage is a groundbreaking idea in the renewable resources industry, and Amber Kinetics’ innovative, sustainable, and highly efficient flywheel design has set the company to be a global powerhouse in energy storage solutions for a green tomorrow.
(Sponsored Feature)
