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IPFS News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology

Current Flywheels moving to Superconducting flywheels using carbon fiber...

• http://www.nextbigfuture.com, brian wang

In 2015, Japan built the world's largest-class superconducting flywheel power storage system with a superconducting magnetic bearings. The completed system is the world's largest-class flywheel power storage system using a superconducting magnetic bearing. It has 300-kW output capability and 100-kWh storage capacity, and contains a CFRP (carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastic) flywheel. This flywheel is 2 meters in diameter and weighs 4 tons, and is rotated with a superconducting magnetic bearing at a maximum speed of 6,000 RPM. This is the world's first superconducting magnetic bearing which uses superconducting material both for its rotor and bearing, and is capable of supporting heavy weight, although it is a compact-sized system.

The flywheel is made by stacking nine layers of CFRP rotors with a 2-meter outer diameter, 1.4-meter inner diameter and 10-centimeter thickness. With this method, flywheels of different storage capacities can be made by changing the number of layers.

It had grid-connection tests with a megawatt-class solar power plant at Komekurayama in Yamanashi Prefecture.


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