Flywheel energy storage systems, also known as “FESS,” can be used to store and release energy in high power pulsed systems. While these flywheels have been used to achieve smooth operation of machines, today complex constructions store energy mechanically and transfer it to and from the flywheel by an integrated motor/generator. This allows flywheels to be used as supplementary UPS storage.

Recently, Beacon Power Corporation, a provider of advanced energy storage products and services to support a more stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid, announced it was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for a $2.25 million award in support of developing a next-generation flywheel energy storage system. According to the company, this money will be used to manufacture flywheels that could store four times the energy at one-eighth the cost, in the comparison of Beacon's current Smart Energy 25 (Gen 4) flywheel system. 

The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), an agency within DOE that provides R&D funding for transformational new energy technologies and systems, gave the award based on Beacon's proposal to develop a highly advanced "flying ring" flywheel system.

The development program will take place over a three-year period beginning later this year, and is valued at a total of $2.8 million, pending contractual agreement. ARPA-E grant recipients share a portion of the program cost, and Beacon would contribute $560,000, or 20 percent of the $2.8 million program total.

Bill Capp, Beacon president and CEO said that with this funding the company will work to develop a lower-cost flywheel system that will advance the state of the art far beyond where it is today and if successful, it will open up a number of new commercially attractive applications and markets for clean, long-life flywheel-based energy storage.

Beacon's Gen 4 flywheel is currently deployed and earning revenue on the grid providing frequency regulation, a service that demands thousands of charge-discharge cycles each year.