What is Digg?Sponsored by AVG
Not All Free Anti-Virus Software Is Created Equal view!
free.avg.com - 2.4 million people a week get AVG Anti-Virus Free, for the best protection against web threats.
35 Comments
- LonelyTylenoL, on 04/13/2009, -1/+12Well of course a flywheel can save energy. It's supposed to store energy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel - tsotha, on 04/13/2009, -0/+6There's really nothing to maintain. A flywheel with magnetic bearings doesn't actually touch anything, so there's no wear. Spinning up and down is done magnetically.
- laim, on 04/13/2009, -0/+6"Also, considering the fact that the descent requires a special attention, then you can only imagine how much power the cranes."
...good sentence - totallyhigh, on 04/13/2009, -0/+4Mark Flynn is my dad's name.
- jasdf, on 04/13/2009, -2/+6Flywheels are a great way to store energy for a relatively short period of time (a couple of minutes). I think that the flywheel based KERS being used in F1 will pave the way for consumer level flywheels in cars.
- jockc, on 04/13/2009, -0/+4You are being dense. The flywheel does not save energy, but when you use a flywheel to temporarily store energy which would otherwise be lost (braking), then reuse that energy to accelerate again, overall you have used less energy. Therefore you have 'saved' energy.
It's like saying turning off the water when you are brushing your teeth saves water. It means you use less water. It does not mean you are actually collecting water and saving it. - DesertTripper, on 04/13/2009, -0/+4Want to see and experience a flywheel energy storage system up close... go to Knott's Berry Farm in Southern Cal. and ride the "Montezooma's Revenge" coaster. This is a living antique in the coaster world, a brainchild of the legendaty coaster designer Antonin Schwarzkopf. In service since 1978, it is one of very few of its kind still in existence, and features a (IIRC) 17,000 pound flywheel that gets spun up to several hundred RPM. The flywheel "launches" the coaster train via a really amazing clutch and cable system, and the thing goes 0-50 in about 2 seconds, shuttling forward and then back through a loop and a track that is spiked up on both ends. This was the de facto launch device before more modern devices such as hydraulic storage systems (Kingda Ka/Top Thrill Dragster/Xcelerator type rides) and linear induction motors (Superman the Escape and California Screamin', among others) came along.
There used to be a kiddie ride in Camp Snoopy (balloon ride) where you could observe the flywheel system from very close, but as that area of the park has been heavily remodeled since the last time I visited, that opp may not be available anymore.
Bottom line - the amount of energy that can be stored kinetically is astonishing. - xxpor, on 04/13/2009, -0/+4No one thats using KERS currently uses the flywheel based system. They all use the battery based system
- serif69, on 04/13/2009, -3/+6Flywheels don't save energy, they store energy. Theoretically, more energy would have to go into spinning up the flywheel which would then power the shaft than would go into powering the shaft directly.
Hence, this is not a flywheel device. It's an energy recapture device that uses a motor/generator in the same way that hybrid vehicles do. It just happens to have a flywheel attached to it. - unclefire, on 04/13/2009, -0/+3Interesting idea, but horibble writing.
- SpoonMSU, on 04/13/2009, -0/+3Dugg for roller coasters.
- LonelyTylenoL, on 04/13/2009, -0/+2There was a girl in my middle school who's mom's name was Nancy Pelosi.
- wertach, on 04/13/2009, -0/+2Old technology is new again!
- charlietuna, on 04/13/2009, -0/+2I am old enough to remember the original oil embargo and the ensuing energy crisis, which was soon forgotten. So far nothing new has been developed, though old ideas have been refined. Flywheels are one of those old ideas that will change the world any day now - for the last 30 years.
- serif69, on 04/13/2009, -0/+2It takes more energy to spin up the flywheel than it does to spin up the shaft without a flywheel, so you have not "saved" any energy, you've actually used more, at least initially. The extra energy it took to spin the flywheel is stored in the rotation of the flywheel and released later.
Using your analogy, using a flywheel *does* mean you are collecting water and saving it. That's how it works. You might be "saving" water with the faucet turned off, but you still have used enough water to fill the sink. Energy has to come from somewhere. - Ramble, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1You can put it on a jig, that completely removes the problem.
- sapped, on 04/14/2009, -0/+1@xxpor
The BMW team uses a flywheel instead of a battery. - LonelyTylenoL, on 04/18/2009, -0/+1Saving energy indirectly does less damage to the environment.
- sumokitty, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1pretty much a copy of the Formula 1 new technology this year
- QubitTarutaru, on 04/14/2009, -0/+1To say there will be absolutely no maintenance at all, can't be true. They will have to maintain the vacuum and the magnet, which may not be too difficult. The internal parts can be protected, but the outer parts are still exposed to elements. If they were to fail, it would be bad. Truthfully, I really don't know much about it.
- ZippyV, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1Walibi in Belgium has the same rollercoaster as you describe. The trains weighs about 10 tonnes (22000 pounds). There is a clip on Youtube where you can see the flywheel in action (1:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JlwBIfKNiw&fea ... - copypastry, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1Sure is 1890s in here.
- tsotha, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1Flywheels have been very difficult to use in cars because of gyroscopic forces, i.e. you turn the wheel and your car flips over. I'm kind of curious how they addressed that problem with KERS. Counter-rotating flywheels?
- jasdf, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1Perhaps the flywheel could be mounted in a gimbal of some sort.
- Ramble, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1Flywheels are excellent batteries - I'm hoping the cost of getting one will go down soon so they can start using them more.
- shzdeR, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1of course
because we call him mark flynn, even though thats not his name... - NoNameWorks, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1wow, that's pretty simple, thank you. I think controlling magnetic fields is great area for research for high efficiency devices now.
- CaptainObviouss, on 04/13/2009, -0/+1cool you could use something like this for storing the power that gets lost in wind power when there are no loads.
- hobogeneral, on 04/13/2009, -4/+4Old news. When I play Forza Motorsport 2 on the XBOX360, I always upgrade my flywheel.
- NoNameWorks, on 04/13/2009, -6/+5Now if they explained how a big heavy block spinning quickly does not require maintenance for 20 years then I'll get excited.
- inactive, on 04/13/2009, -3/+3The flywheel has been used since the Neolithic Age. What else is new?
- DavidChouinard, on 04/13/2009, -3/+3Isn't saving energy and helping the environment pretty much the same thing?
- DaNuKaSAN, on 04/13/2009, -2/+1GOOGLE DID IT BETTER!
(their custom server racks have built in autonomous battery packs on a per-blade basis) - rmxz, on 04/13/2009, -2/+1Why are people voting you down? Flywheels literally have been used to store energy (mechanical rather than electrical energy back then) since the neolithic age.
And they're pretty standard systems for electrical storage, with similar capacity and lower maintenance costs compared to large battery backed UPSs. - inactive, on 04/13/2009, -3/+0Too bad cranes are a completely insignificant source of emissions. The treehuggers get more absurd every day.
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is