INTRODUCTION

Frequent unavailability makes solar energy inappropriate for many applications. Energy storage is required ,whenever energy supply and demand are out of phase.

The choice of storage method is affected by the duration of storage, the quantity and density of energy to be stored, the form of energy needed for consumption, and the variation in the rate of consumption. Energy storage must consider both the amount of energy that can be stored and the efficiency at which it can be recovered. Some materials have high energy storage capacity but low rate of recovery.

FLY WHEEL ENERGY STORAGE

Mechanical rotation is a very traditional form of energy storage. Flywheels are one of the most promising technologies for replacing conventional lead acid batteries as energy storage systems. A rotating flywheel can accumulate and store mechanical energy in an inertial, kinetic form.

MAIN COMPONENTS
A rotor Suspension System A motor/generator system Evacuated containment.

ROTOR CONFIGURATION
Flywheel is composed of concentric thin rims made of a composite material, with each rim separated from the next one by an elastic material This design promises high volume efficiency. The rotor is assembled by winding filaments of the composite material into individual rims. A rim made of composite materials is considered "thin" if its thickness does not exceed 10% of its radius. Tangential stresses vary as the square of the radius from the centre of rotation, so that all the filaments will not fail at the same time .

SUSPENSION TECHNIQUE
The most advanced suspension designs involve floating the rotor on magnetic "bearings" composed of permanent magnets, electromagnets or both.

Mechanical "touchdown" bearings are included in the electromagnet designs to allow for fail-safe spin-down.
"thrust bearings support the rotor in the axial direction. Since the axial load is constant, thrust bearings can be either permanent magnets or electromagnets. "journal" bearings to provide control in the radial direction; these can only be electromagnets due to the need for variable flux. Some designs call for the flywheel to rotate about the horizontal axis, in such case the roles of thrust and journal bearings change.

MOTOR/GENERATOR
An electrical machine is needed to "store" energy in the inertia of the rotor, and "retrieve" it when required by the load. The motor/generator (M/G) is an integrated high-speed device which acts as a motor while "charging" the flywheel and as a generator on its "discharge". It is possible to attach an array of permanent magnets to the rotor to create a rotating dipole field. If these magnets are configured so as to surround the M/G windings, then the rotor and the M/G can be effectively coupled. Flywheel becomes the rotor of the M/G.

Since the output of the PV array is DC, the use of a DC M/G device is logical since it eliminated the need for DC-AC conversion.

EVACUATED CONTAINMENT
A composite flywheel is contained in an enclosure with a chamber pressure not greater than 10 -2 Pa.
Above this level of evacuation the losses due to air resistance rise rapidly.

An enclosure would reduce the noise level.

An enclosure (evacuated or not) would be required for safety measures due to the risk of catastrophic failure Only the rotor and suspension system need to be in the vacuum

OPERATING PRINCIPLE
In a rigid body rotating with angular speed about a fixed axis, each particle has a certain amount of kinetic energy. If the mass of a rotating thin rim is concentrated as a surface at a distance r from the axis of rotation, its energy density is

=
= =

= The forces of tensile stress

=density = the dimensionless "shape factor" or "form factor"

WORKING
Regulatory circuitry is required to cyclically bring the energy storage system on- and off-line to maintain a constant supply of energy available to the load. If the array output dropped below a certain threshold, the array would be disconnected from the load and replaced by the flywheel storage system, which would begin to decelerate and discharge

If the array output rose above a certain threshold, the flywheel storage system would be disconnected from the load and would begin to accelerate and charge from a portion of the array's output.
Once the flywheel reached its design speed, it would not require any further charging due to its long rundown time-constant.

ADVANTAGES

Much higher charging and discharging rate. They present fewer hazards to personnel and none to the environment, particularly at the time of disposal. The storage capacity is independent of temperature fluctuations, and the unit is not harmed by exposure to temperature extremes.

The energy storage efficiencies of a flywheel-based system can be superior to that of a battery-based system.

REFERENCES
Leslie J. Reinke, P. Eng, Tutorial Overview of Flywheel Energy Storage in a Photovoltaic Power Generation System: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta 0-7803-1443-3/93,1993 IEEE.