As far as flywheels are concerned for storage of energy in a fixed location, the precision balancing, bearings and construction costs might favor simpler technologies.
Consider a very simple machine, attached to a wind turbine/group of turbines/farm. Simplistically a rope hauls up a weight so arranged to turn an alternator shaft when it is allowed to fall. Such a low-tech device would literally last forever and cost less to build and maintain than a complex flywheel arrangement.
Let us again go mad with someone else's money. Bore a vertical shaft alongside/under the mill, say 40 feet in diameter and 600 feet deep. Let’s say a 2000 ton concrete ‘piston’ 40 feet long were lifted up the shaft 500 feet during times of excess production over demand. The potential is 2240 million ft lb. of energy or c. 850 kW hours.
Consider the production of hydrogen, by electrolysis, at a wind-farm site.
On May 2 1800, Mr W Nicholson and Mr A Carlisle happened to put a drop of water in contact with two wires from an electric battery. They noticed small bubbles of gas forming at the tips of the wires, which were not in contact. They then put the wires into a glass of water and found that gas was evolved from both wires. The gasses were oxygen at the anode and hydrogen at the cathode. The gasses were then mixed and exploded, when the product was found to be water. Two volumes of hydrogen were formed to each volume of oxygen. By Avogados theorum, [1811], the explosion of 3 volumes of ‘electrolytic gas’ produces 2 volumes of steam.
BTW, anyone thinking of copying the above experiment should be aware of the dangers of ‘electrolytic’ or ‘detonating gas’ - it is powerfully explosive.
The hydrogen could be used directly by fuel cells to produce electricity at times of lower wind speeds or peak demands. The electrolysis itself is theoretically 80-94% efficient with modern developments, so overall efficiencies producing electrical power would be lower, perhaps 40-60%. Oxygen production, as a by-product, might be viable to add to the overall earnings from the plant.
Alan
