Further more, Flywheels on engines are for smoother operation and to allow low idle. The more cylinders the less you need a flywheels weight as theres less of a gap in power between cycles.
I had that same idea 30 years ago...I used to ride a bus and it was like make a stop, almost full throttle to the speed limit and then slam on the brakes for the next stop 1/2 mile away....nothing but logical to use a massive flywheel to slow the bus down and finnish with the brakes and then use a clutch hooked to the flywheel to get it rolling again
I once worked for a hydraulics company. They had the idea of installing a hydraulic pump with the transmission. The pump would be used in place of using the brakes. The stopping force would be from charging an accumulator. When it was time to go the pressure in the accumulator would power the pump and the way we would go. This project was dropped when they determined that the production cost was excessive. To bad, it was excellent for stop and go traffic.
The flywheel in a car has nothing to do with shifting the transmission. The clutch plate (in a manual transmission) does hook up th the flywheel but all internal combustion engines have a flywheel, even your standard push mower. The flywheel on an internal combustion engine maintains the rotation of the crankshaft using rotational energy from the previous combustion stroke to push out exaust and compress more fuel and air for the next combustion cycle. It operates as short term energy storage and the transmission is in no way dependent on it. Wile the transmission does connect to the flywheel, the designers only make cars this way to reduce materials needed and promote efficiency of the vehicle. Without the care of unneeded weight and increased expenses, you could put the flywheel on the front of an engine and feed power to the transmission directly from the crankshaft. Also, when talking about the Sterling engine nasa put in a Chevy, you showed footage of what looked like a blue dodge truck.
@@aicram62 ok, so that is a great question! Electric motors don't require a flywheel, infact an electric motor that has a flywheel and/or continues to rotate when power isn't being ran through the coils can generate power. That idea isn't used in electric cars today because it would only be a short burst of energy like when you're coming to a stop and the batteries will ware out because of it. Also, that power would need to go through a separate circuit and not the speed controller. So far as having a motor directly connected to a wheel, I believe Elon has something close to that on a few of his models but I'm sure there is a gear box of some sort in place. If not, wile in traffic, the motor would burn up from constant low speed movement. The motor needs to turn to stay cool (they usually have a cooling fan inside the motor like on a drill). Again, this is all to the best of my limited knowledge. I haven't worked on a tesla or any other full size electric cars. Hope that helps your understanding!
@@kurtbreitenfeldt2330 I can understand the brakes wearing out, but not the batteries. But I don't understand a lot so... Not that you have to know the answer but if there were a flywheel on an electric motor could it not help to recharge the batteries so that it would not take so long to recharge at the end of the day?
I am an old guy that remembers tech from earlier years. One example were houses with a tower/tank above their roofs. The water pumped up into the tank is stored energy in a simple form. This example can still seen in a few rural areas. Energy to move water was provided by gravity in the old fashioned residential water tower. Yes, we still do this with water tanks owned by utility companies. The point is energy stored through gravity provided water under pressure, by an individual family to itself, without paying a utility company and was the ordinary.
If I recall the issue is... You'd need either a massive tank, or an incredibly tall tower for it to generate enough to make it worth while. Doesn't work on a small scale. On a big scale? I don't think the cost is worth it relative to other technologies. Not to say it isn't being used. Just there is a reason it isn't sought after. Pumped hydro on the other hand is the most widely used form of storing electricity already. People are trying so many various methods on it. The dumbest thing though is the Energy Vault. They use concrete blocks, and stack them. It makes literally no sense to do that over storing water in a tower. It is a scam for the amount of energy it stores for the cost.
Examples are easy to find on eBay, either with the correct "Stirling" engine spelling or the typo Sterling engine. I suppose you could make a Stirling Engine out of Sterling Silver!
A solar powered heat engine beat out Edison's light bulb for the best technology innovation at the St. Louis 1904 Worlds Fair. Check out the work of Papa Himalaya.
An interesting approach would be to combine a Sterling engine with geothermal - use the temperature gradient to generate energy with the earth acting as a heat battery. Imagine a bore hole going down a KMs with a pipe with fluid picking up heat and a sterling engine turning that into electricity. A similar approach could also work upwards...
One of my favorite videos you've done. Energy storage is definitely the biggest area of gain for renewables. Glad to see a breakdown of some of the solutions to be considered.
I just bought a kinetic wood splitter. It has an ice engine that spins up two large flywheels and with a rack and pinion system, I split wood faster then the hydraulic alternative and with less than half the gas usage! The flywheel gets spun up (on low idle) between splits and delivers that stored energy with great speed and force! It is amazing what a heavy spinning weight can do for you! It can't do everything but it can do a lot more than it currently does and talk about cheap and simple! Oh my!
Ricky, compressed air through the use of a “TROMPE”, also one of the oldest forms of “cool and dry” stored energy. May be produced anywhere with falling water. The compressed air may be piped hundreds of miles to underground storage units without degradation. 120 psi may not sound like a lot of potential to produce energy but the large volume potential makes this form zero mechanical storage uniquely viable.
"Hydroelectric power first appeared in Switzerland in 1907" Sorry to correct you there but a guy called Armstrong had one in his house in the UK in 1870. The house is called Cragside.
Our state used a large underground salt cavern that was used to store compressed air that generated with wind turbines. That compressed air was then used to run gas turbines in an electric power plant. Since 2/3 of the natural gas used by an electric turbine is used to compress the air, this arrangement was used to reduce fuel usage by 66%. After implementing a pilot project and successfully demonstrating its capabilities, the project was deemed "not Green enough" and abandoned.
There is another gravity assisted storage option: heavy trains (like 10000 tons or more) on a very steep track up and down a hill, crawling slowly uphill while consuming electricity and going slowly downhill while generating electricity. This can easily be scaled where hills are available. Here in Switzerland they could be built next to the skilifts, where we have infrastructure already available. They could help store renewable energy like wind and solar and they basically last forever if maintained properly.
Similar to pumped hydroelectric storage there are companies designing gravity batteries that use giant weights installed into vertical shafts underground. When the power comes in from solar or wind the weight is pulled up, and when no power is coming in gravity pull the weight down and puts that energy back into the grid. The benefits of this over a pumped hydro system is that they can be installed anywhere a vertical shaft can be dug, and can have the horizontal footprint of garden shed.
I 'member a article about someone working on a ceramic flywheel with maglev bearing and in a vacuum to power car, that sounded amazing, about 30 years ago..
I know someone who worked on the NASA kinetic battery system. The entire system was canceled last time I talked to them. While technically feasible, although challenging, modern chemical battery storage has just gotten so much cheaper than kinetic systems. This has pushed out any realistic use in the space program as far as I know. I have seen so many "new technologies" or rekindled interest in old ones during my lifetime. The only company I have really seen to make a real difference is Tesla. I believe that their biggest impact is not to the Car Industry, but to the Fossil Fuel Industry. I know that some technologies are not encouraged or discouraged based on their merit, but on entrenched Fossil Fuel and Nuclear interest. So the question always comes back to finding support and proving that a technology is able to be cheaper and better than those it displaces , and is able to be produced in large scale. Wind Power, Solar Power, and now Battery Storage, have all shown their merits, cost, and scalability to be able to change the course of industries and how we live. The others that you mention have yet to be proven. While some may need a champion like Elon Musk to bring them into widespread usage, others just will never be practical based on inherent limitations of the technology.
Ricky the 2Bit, keeps bring back inventions of the past. Many historical inventions that work use this Spinwheel concept action, even the most advance geo-scoptical gyro directional theoridical sightings of disc shape "UFO" have harnest the Spinwheel jive.🛸🛰🎢🎡🎠
A lighter option is using a coil spring (circular spring that can hold many windings of energy), and it can be discharged through a generator when no energy (of a specific form) is present. Point 2: molten salts (used in mirror solar arrays) can run a sterling engine. Point 3: If you combine tidal power (offset with bays and harbors), small scale river and stream power (non-dam), solar arrays (fresnel lenses, or mirror arrays, to heat molten salt), and wind power (smaller scale is more efficient over time), you should have a combination that gives close to 24hrs/day power.
The old " friction powered" toys used flywheels. Push a toy car to spin the flywheel, and let it go. Years ago, I saw a freon engine that used waste heat from a industrial/institutional boiler to drive it. This was the mid '80s. Aren't some buses powered by big capacitors? They're charged at each stop by overhead induction chargers. They charge quickly, and have a longer life than batteries, but are only good for short trips, which is fine for city buses. Your videos would be great for junior high science classes...
Years ago I saw a video regarding a wind up car. A huge spring is wound up to store the energy and slowly released to travel. Haven't heard of this since so it's probably inefficient. I always thought this is a neat idea for limited traveling. No pollution or motor.
I remember a story about a company here in the netherlands that has machines that require a high power connection at startup but when started their powerneed would drop significantly. Their maximum power grid connection is lower then the power required so they set up a flywheelsystem that can build up momentum and at the time of need generate the excess capacity to start the machine and then generate power untill the momentum is gone and would start up when more power is needed again.
Another consideration of spinning a large heavy weight spinning at speed is the gyroscopic effect. You can't ignore it. It would effect the handling of any vehicle. Add to that the additional weight of the flywheel it's lubrication and maintenance and initial power requirement, I think it's being sold with somewhat rose coloured glasses...
What will still make the biggest change will be nominal improvements in various battery tech. The wind blows, battery storage. The sun shines? Battery storage. No need for tiny hydroelectric which relies on no droughts, and no flywheels necessary. It will be the easiest to perfect and the cheapest for people to buy. Good science history though!
Swiss people would not be impressed by your pronunciation of Oerlikon :) The video, as always, is superb. I am very interested in flywheels - I did not know they are so good at the storage and longevity.
This may be off topic, but I think someone might find it interesting. Piston style over unity electric generator. By AMA Motor segment: 1 motor with bar connected to it standing vertically circular disc connected to bar that has magnets embedded in it surrounded in high permeability material to focus magnets outward pushing force in an upwards direction from top of disc. Power Bar segment (Just name I gave it) Hollowed out cylindrical Bar of material horizontally positioned. donut shaped material with openings around its flat edge for magnets surrounded in high permeability material to be embedded. place these all along the cylindrical bar connected to it solidly. except at far ends of bar. At both ends of bar rings of material that can be magnetically repelled in specific locations (magnetically repelled in specific location is in reference to outside of ring area that faces away from center of bar)(Other side of same ring facing in towards center of bar is capable of magnetic repulsion all around) are connected solidly to bar. points of repulsion on these rings is off set from each other on each end of bar. 3 Hollow donut ring structure with connecting bar: Ring structure has all magnetic repulsion on inside of donut shape & and can rap around the main bar so that the bar wont be causing friction on things as it moves back and forth. 1st positioned around far left of bar, 2nd position center of bar & 3rd positioned on far right of bar. Tube structure is constructed in two parts that fit together on top of each other length wise over main structure & has openings for bar to the Ring structure that is connected around the main bar keeping it from causing friction on structure with it's magnetic padding. This tube structure is designed with material that does not block magnetic fields. Perhaps some type of transparent material glass or other. At both ends of the tube structure there is a built in groove that will house a disc, the groove has 4 points, top bottom left and right that has small magnets embedded in it on the inside so that the pushing force from magnets is pushing in towards the edge of disc that goes in this spot. The disc has ring around it that is repelled by magnetic fields so the 4 small magnets will keep it lined up but it will be able to spin without causing friction on structure. The disc has openings on it's flat side that face inside of tube and magnets surrounded in high permeability material are embedded in this disc. The disc has small bar that is connected to it that goes all the way to the other end of Power bar structure through the center of the hollowed out bar and connects to disc on other end. Disc on other end is set up the same but magnets embedded in it are off set in comparison. As first disc spins the magnetic fields will push against specific spot on disc connected directly to bar, pushing bar in other direction, once bar is fully pushed over, further spinning of disc will then align the other sides magnet to push it back. Tube structure also has half moon shaped protrusion on inside and on both halves so when tube is connected they line up to make a full ring shape on inside of tube, these half moon shaped protrusions have at least 1 small round opening on it's side in middle of curve that faces away from center of bar. The opening has a small magnet embedded in it so magnetic force is repelling out sideways away from center of bar. The protruding ring is positioned to line up slightly further in towards center of bar then the ring of magnetically repelled material connected directly to bar. This way when bar moves to right this magnet will act as a stopper keeping bar from going to far & same setup on other side will keep bar from going to far to left. Copper coil setup: copper coils are wound up as if wound around the width of wood board for a distance equal to width of magnetic ring setup on bar. Wound copper coils are then looped around the tube like a donut lined up perpendicular to magnetic fields. Ends of copper coils are connected into separate construct that will allow electrical current to flow somewhere else. Circular construct is built like a stand that goes around the outside of motor segment. Circular construct has flat ring of high permeability (magnetic field shielding) material that has small openings that will allow magnetic fields through specific locations. Top of circular construct has groove to allow the power bar to balance on. Circular construct can also be placed on other end of power bar so it is balanced. The motor segment is positioned so the disc connected to the bar that is connected to the motor is lined up so the disc passes under the power bars disc that is at end of power bar. The high permeability material keeps the magnetic field from the embedded magnets exerting their force upwards from hitting into the disc in the power bar until just the right moment when the impact will cause the disc in power bar to spin which will perpetuate the piston motion in the power bar. More power bars of the same design are built and positioned around the motor segment in a circular fashion all the way around. The bar connected to the motor can be increased in length to desired height and more of the exact same setup is repeated higher and higher up maximizing the over unity potential of the construct to ridiculous proportions. :D Current from the power bars is diverted to power the motor as needed and all other current is diverted to power my game console or the world. :) Interesting variation to this design would be to connect the spinning discs on far ends of power bar to main bar that magnets are connected to so the magnets spin instead of getting pistoned back and forth. So long as moving magnetic fields are perpendicular to copper wires it should work. By AMA
I was only thinking about this the other day. Maybe coastal areas could also make salt water damns for hydro-electric, using renewable to refill its capacity.
There was an article in _POPULAR MECHANICS_ magazine {or a similar publication} about flywheel batteries at least as far back as the 1980s. It might have even been in the 1970s, I am not certain of the date.
The fly wheel of an engine buffers the impulses from combustion that drive the pistons/con rods via the crankshaft. By this, a continuous exchange of momentum is established between the mass of the flywheel and the masses of the reciprocating pistons/con rods. The result is a smooth rotational input to the transmission. This continuous exchange of momentum explains why no energy is lost from reciprocating the pistons/con rods. The only loss is from the various forms of friction. It has nothing to do with shifting.
How about a video on stacked kinetic energy storage? It stacks blocks during the surplus times to use the weight of the blocks to run generators by "unstacking" the blocks... using cranes. I don't know much else about it, but it seems like an intriguing idea and would seem to be more efficient than pumped hydro.
I know it's probably not economically viable, but whenever I see these things I always think off all the ways that you could combine these- cover wind turbines with solar, and if they are out at sea harvest wave and tidal at the same spot and skim the algae for biofuel... It's like Rube Goldberg energy storage- Make a giant mass for a weight drop generator, but pressurize the shaft first (and use that energy first), then spin the whole mass as a flywheel, and oh, by the way, the mass is also made out of batteries and the walls of the shaft are lined with heat exchangers and any waste heat that gets beyond all that is captured with piezo electric switches... Hmm... I wonder how much energy you could get dropping meteors down a space elevator...
You missed the option of large weights being lifted up to a specific heights and then using gravity to power dynamos. Something that can be implemented cheaply at an individual level, like for a house.
I look forward to the Stirling engine video along with other uses of heat pumps like closed loop geothermal, hvac, oceanic thermal energy conversion, along with solar assist heat pumps that cool solar panels and warm water/ generate energy, along with the use of different working fluids to achieve a certain use. Great topic.
I remember hearing of a lot of the items you mention in the video, but they’ve fallen to the wayside for any number of reasons. It seems whatever’s being talked about on social media is considered to be the “latest and greatest”, however there are plenty of old technologies that just sit until discovered again… Yes, I’d vote for revisiting some of these older new again technologies.
post 1: kudos on subject 1, there's a number of researchers in flywheel tech that are interested mainly because of the efficiency aspects, there needs to be much more performed on mag-lev implementation, please do a follow-up video about that encouraging younger viewers to get involved, if memory serves me corr'ly - there's a prototype bicycle u can cover, one 'hobby approach' might be to suggest younger viewers to have a design competition for flywheel go-karts that u could host on a separate video/venue
I don't know what became of it, but I remember, maybe sometime in the 90s, there was a company (French, I think) that was looking into air pressure cars and another company was looking to use air pressure for regenerative breaking for larger vehicles (the math didn't work as well for smaller vehicles).
I think you are making all these technologies look rosier than reality. As said they are not new, and all have challenges that have prevented their mainstream use. Cost usually being the largest, then reliability (which affects cost). As conventional methods become more expensive (monetarily, or environmentally) some of these technologies will start becoming more attractive, but there haven't been any revolutions in technology that suddenly make them work or particularly viable.
Could get a lot of energy stored by pumping lake tahoe up to the top of the Rocky Mountains. Many conventional hydro plants could be updated/operated as a pumped storage system. Quebec Hydro comes to mind here.
The trouble with flywheels is that you have to have a large enough structure/mass to make it worth it...which is ok when talking about a battery storage site. Much less so when you are talking about flying it to space...
Just asking for your opinion on a different concept of my own that is quite basic. The build can at least be of 2 ultra strong permanent magnets, one above another where the top magnet stays stationary on a plastic* container maybe filled with water while the other is inside that container. Between the top magnet and the container needs to be a very narrow gap for which a light sheet of lead* can easily slide between the magnets just enough to cause the bottom magnet to fall as if it were a delicate power switch that the rise and fall will help* generate more electrical power than it would take to move the lead* sheet in and out of that gap in least frictionless way, maybe levitated by other magnets. The water is basic to prevent damaging and even far too much noise. . In summary... it would be as if the permanent magnets can be switch on and off like electro-magnets. . I tend to come up with a whole lot of various ideas that worked out awesomely, but... not often able to test my ideas out.
There are two pump storage systems in Georgia which work well. One is the dam on Lake Oconee and the other is Rocky Mountain near Rome. Both essentially have a man made lakes above and below. RM was discovered when power company engineers in the early 70’s were flying in a helicopter between coal plants after seeing this idea at a conference. Both have reversible pump turbines.
As usual a great video. You just stopped too soon. I wish you had covered liquified air and weights, etc. I realize you have time constraints but they’re a few other methods people are trying and I’d love to hear about them.
Back in the late '60s and early '70s, magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Mechanics used talk all the time about Stirling engines and flywheel energy storage as... for example... part of suburban houses(!). Mahalo for bringing these ideas back into the modern public consciousness! We have newer technologies... and the impetus of unfavourable climate change... to spur further development.
Flywheels are for big/ huge energy storage systems..they cannot respond to instantaneous high energy demands..like in momentary grid failure../ tripping ..and have to be complimented with other energy storage systems...for better yields.
I think one of the most powerful and everlasting batteries is the rise and fall of the tides....with a dammed enclosure you can capture the energy of the water both flowing in and flowing out. This is the same a a man made device called a mill pond where a small stream of water is collected in the mill pond and released to drive a water wheel, normally the stream is too small to drive the water wheel but when it's stored it has a huge potential energy due to the weight of the volume of water stored......it's a battery, and like a battery it's capacity is limited by it's volume of storage. You cannot compress water to make more capacity in a smaller space and at the same time you cannot compress air in a smaller space to get more capacity because in the end you end up with liquid air and that is the same as liquid water that can only release the energy by applying more energy in the form of heat to make steam to get the stored energy out.
The buses were retired for a reason - primarily because they needed almost continuous maintenance and were always breaking down. The problem is that whenever the orientation of the rotational axis is changed, there is a huge right angle thrust on the mounting bearings. The only orientation that would work well in a bus would be with vertical mounting and that only if the bus ran on a level surface (no up/down) angle changes. One of the magazines, probably either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, had a long article in one of their issues - back in the 60s.
Not entirely... the flywheel of an internal combustion engine keeps the crankshaft spinning between combustion strokes of the cylinders but does create a smoother flow of torque for engines with large numbers of cylinders, like >6 or 8. Yes, with no flywheel, the engine rpm would drop between shifts, but without the flywheel, the engine wouldn't keep running at idle, either.
Can you do a video on cars that run on compressed air. This technology has been around since the 1800's. People have been working on these kind of small vehicles in Europe for over a couple of decades. Thank you.
I look at the loads for my solar+storage setup. Heating and cooling, is one of the biggest loads. If this can be offset by underground storage, with heat pump, this would be real gain. It would take the load off the electrical (electronics and lighting). The big problem is cost of drilling. Maybe some of the technology from Musk's Boring company can help with this? (Also, a "smart" hot water heater as a storage device, in coordination with the solar+storage setup?)
The Stirling engine has always been just around the corner, but never came. It has reciprocating pistons so cannot be highly efficient. I did read a rotary version was made in some R&D. That would be a great advance. For automotive use it is too big and heavy. Great for a hybrid in a large vehicle like a truck, bus, train or ship. It actually powers submarines. The Stirling is limited to niche applications. But worth a vid on it.
Please do more in-depth videos on the most practical, and most Green (non-Chemical) Mechanical Power Storage solutions, and also Botanical/ Biological Power Storage (and Carbon Capture) solutions.
9:50 "Then, when the power demand increases, the flood gates open and all the dam water flows through the turbine" At risk of being pedantic, the penstock gates are what open to admit damed water to the turbines.
If I wanted to suspend a concrete block in the air to use as potential energy to power my home for a day, it would have to be suspended more than 32ft in the air if the block of concrete was 9 feet by 40 feet by 50 feet, or roughly the square footage of my house and 9 feet high.
As cool as the idea of mechanical batteries in the form of suspended weights are, there is very little potential energy there. We'd have to suspend a loaded semi and trailer (or equivalent) at 100 meters just to equal the energy in a liter of petrol. On the positive side, there isn't much holding us back from building nearly infinite amounts of them. Maybe it should just remind us to appreciate energy more.
Wait. Wouldn't a flywheel on a satellite induce things like unwanted gyroscopic procession? They use spinning wheels, reaction control wheels, to orient satellites so I know it would. So then if you're going to put a flywheel on a satellite, you would need two spinning in opposite directions and they would have to charge and discharge at exactly the same rate. Even the smallest deviation between the two would, over time, induce a drift in the satellites orientation. And flywheels are heavy. Wouldn't it make your satellite cost a lot more to get to orbit?
For large-scale power storage/generation, I would like to see more done with systems that harness the immense power of the oceanic tides. There are several different types of models that have been made on a small scale. The motion of water doesn't have to be vertical like at a fall. The moon's rotation around the earth combined with its effect on the water is already providing absolutely massive kinetic energy. I have nothing against wind, and solar, but hydro is a lot more predictable and much more powerful.
Solar thermal is far more efficient than photovoltaic. In Hawaii many people have solar thermal on their roofs, more even than photovoltaic. Has this caught on in the southwest? Converting solar directly to hot water is much more efficient than running a hot water heater off electricity from photovoltaic or anywhere. Might make a good video topic. When I lived on the windward (rainy) side of oahu we had hot water year round without need for the backup heating element - though it did cool off a bit once or twice with like 4+ days of rain… but overall it was great!
Love how you concentrate on storage and completely leave out the extra production capacity needed to produce stored energy. You also forgot to include locations that are not suitable for renewables. Eg: areas with low wind, a shortage of sunlight and no geological formations currently accessible to geothermal production. Storage is only one of the hurdles currently plaguing the 100% renewable grid. It would be great to completely cover Nevada, half of commiefornia, New Mexico, Texas and most of Utah with solar but I doubt convincing the residents will go over well. As well as setting up hundreds of thousands of wind turbines across the most windy areas in the country or even destroy a swath of national park in Hawaii for geothermal plants would be popular. And what of Alaska? Do those residents get to freeze, starve and die without electricity and food? Quite possibly come up with a type of storage that lasts for 6 months or better.... I crunched the cost numbers on replacing thermal production with wind and solar. The numbers are frightening, to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars. That doesn't even touch the planned obsolescence of the internal combustion engine and increased grid demand of charging 300 million electric vehicles. We won't even get started on the impact of a carbon zero agriculture industry. All in all, running completely on renewables in the next 30 years is virtually impossible without sacrificing 99 out of every 100 lives.
I think you're forgetting about nuclear there bud. We definitely do have the technology and the production capacity to meet demand and store energy, power grids do need adapting regardless. As for your zero carbon agriculture, I have to agree. There is a massive carbon foot print associated with the industry, but we need people like you to be proponents of green energy production, not a pessimist. No doubt, wind and solar are not the solution but they are a part of the bigger picture and with 173TW of solar energy every day there is definitely a market to exploit.
Ever heard of a vacuum enclosed and magnetically levitated magnetic rotor and flywheel? This was once proposed in the late 1970s and then it disappeared.
Great set of videos. Cam here from the flywheel bus video. If you don't mind, wanted to ask as to how you get such cinematic, boomy voice ? I've met a lot of deep, baritone voiced people, but very few of them could sound like this when recorded.
@@TwoBitDaVinci haha am glad..The choice of music and your voice is really incredible. Cutting off bg music when proving a point can make the video even more incredible. Overall I love your videos.
There really is no need in the long term for energy storage (it is useful for load balancing, however). Since the Sun shines 24 hours a day you just need a world wide grid to use electricity anywhere as it's created. The resultant energy is cheaper, there is a built in world wide incentive to switch to green energy, and you can ramp up nuclear plants to their designed output instead of their currently less safe and less efficient throttled condition.
Further more, Flywheels on engines are for smoother operation and to allow low idle. The more cylinders the less you need a flywheels weight as theres less of a gap in power between cycles.
Kinimatic Dampner
Tell that to my Harmonic Dampner! lolz, but you are right.
The gyro bus looks interesting, please share more.
Maybe there could be a gyro City Car that recharges at each stoplight :)
There actually is a Gyro Car. It has a large built in gyroscope. Enter Gyro Car in on YouTUBE.
Would someone do a comparison between a Gyro Buss and a Battery Buss. There may be places where the Gyro may be the best option.
I had that same idea 30 years ago...I used to ride a bus and it was like make a stop, almost full throttle to the speed limit and then slam on the brakes for the next stop 1/2 mile away....nothing but logical to use a massive flywheel to slow the bus down and finnish with the brakes and then use a clutch hooked to the flywheel to get it rolling again
I once worked for a hydraulics company. They had the idea of installing a hydraulic pump with the transmission. The pump would be used in place of using the brakes. The stopping force would be from charging an accumulator. When it was time to go the pressure in the accumulator would power the pump and the way we would go. This project was dropped when they determined that the production cost was excessive. To bad, it was excellent for stop and go traffic.
The flywheel in a car has nothing to do with shifting the transmission. The clutch plate (in a manual transmission) does hook up th the flywheel but all internal combustion engines have a flywheel, even your standard push mower. The flywheel on an internal combustion engine maintains the rotation of the crankshaft using rotational energy from the previous combustion stroke to push out exaust and compress more fuel and air for the next combustion cycle. It operates as short term energy storage and the transmission is in no way dependent on it. Wile the transmission does connect to the flywheel, the designers only make cars this way to reduce materials needed and promote efficiency of the vehicle. Without the care of unneeded weight and increased expenses, you could put the flywheel on the front of an engine and feed power to the transmission directly from the crankshaft. Also, when talking about the Sterling engine nasa put in a Chevy, you showed footage of what looked like a blue dodge truck.
I love cars.
@@ProfessionalGasLighting as do I
What about if you didn't have a transmission because it is an electric car? Could each wheel be a fly wheel?
@@aicram62 ok, so that is a great question! Electric motors don't require a flywheel, infact an electric motor that has a flywheel and/or continues to rotate when power isn't being ran through the coils can generate power. That idea isn't used in electric cars today because it would only be a short burst of energy like when you're coming to a stop and the batteries will ware out because of it. Also, that power would need to go through a separate circuit and not the speed controller. So far as having a motor directly connected to a wheel, I believe Elon has something close to that on a few of his models but I'm sure there is a gear box of some sort in place. If not, wile in traffic, the motor would burn up from constant low speed movement. The motor needs to turn to stay cool (they usually have a cooling fan inside the motor like on a drill).
Again, this is all to the best of my limited knowledge. I haven't worked on a tesla or any other full size electric cars.
Hope that helps your understanding!
@@kurtbreitenfeldt2330 I can understand the brakes wearing out, but not the batteries. But I don't understand a lot so... Not that you have to know the answer but if there were a flywheel on an electric motor could it not help to recharge the batteries so that it would not take so long to recharge at the end of the day?
I am an old guy that remembers tech from earlier years. One example were houses with a tower/tank above their roofs. The water pumped up into the tank is stored energy in a simple form. This example can still seen in a few rural areas. Energy to move water was provided by gravity in the old fashioned residential water tower. Yes, we still do this with water tanks owned by utility companies. The point is energy stored through gravity provided water under pressure, by an individual family to itself, without paying a utility company and was the ordinary.
If I recall the issue is... You'd need either a massive tank, or an incredibly tall tower for it to generate enough to make it worth while.
Doesn't work on a small scale. On a big scale? I don't think the cost is worth it relative to other technologies.
Not to say it isn't being used. Just there is a reason it isn't sought after.
Pumped hydro on the other hand is the most widely used form of storing electricity already. People are trying so many various methods on it.
The dumbest thing though is the Energy Vault. They use concrete blocks, and stack them. It makes literally no sense to do that over storing water in a tower. It is a scam for the amount of energy it stores for the cost.
That Sterling generator looks interesting. Would like to know more. Tks.
Examples are easy to find on eBay, either with the correct "Stirling" engine spelling or the typo Sterling engine.
I suppose you could make a Stirling Engine out of Sterling Silver!
The Next Great Thing by Mark Shelton describes solar power Stirling engine engineering.
A solar powered heat engine beat out Edison's light bulb for the best technology innovation at the St. Louis 1904 Worlds Fair. Check out the work of Papa Himalaya.
An interesting approach would be to combine a Sterling engine with geothermal - use the temperature gradient to generate energy with the earth acting as a heat battery. Imagine a bore hole going down a KMs with a pipe with fluid picking up heat and a sterling engine turning that into electricity. A similar approach could also work upwards...
@@IgalGreenberg Hmmm !!!
Throwing a little kinetic energy at you for another great presentation as always.
thank you!
One of my favorite videos you've done. Energy storage is definitely the biggest area of gain for renewables. Glad to see a breakdown of some of the solutions to be considered.
I just bought a kinetic wood splitter. It has an ice engine that spins up two large flywheels and with a rack and pinion system, I split wood faster then the hydraulic alternative and with less than half the gas usage! The flywheel gets spun up (on low idle) between splits and delivers that stored energy with great speed and force! It is amazing what a heavy spinning weight can do for you! It can't do everything but it can do a lot more than it currently does and talk about cheap and simple! Oh my!
Ricky: let me know of you'd like us to make a video on...
Me: YES
Ricky, compressed air through the use of a “TROMPE”, also one of the oldest forms of “cool and dry” stored energy. May be produced anywhere with falling water. The compressed air may be piped hundreds of miles to underground storage units without degradation. 120 psi may not sound like a lot of potential to produce energy but the large volume potential makes this form zero mechanical storage uniquely viable.
That "please subscribe" message was so good I actually subscribed
"Hydroelectric power first appeared in Switzerland in 1907"
Sorry to correct you there but a guy called Armstrong had one in his house in the UK in 1870. The house is called Cragside.
I wish you would have covered gravity batteries such as Gravitricity. Pump energy requires too many geographical factors.
Gravitricitry is a scam. Such an appealing idea, but unfortunately not scalable enough and economically not viable.
Energy does nothing but work work work work work. This is a fact.
Yes, more about sterling egines, and flywheel storage
Our state used a large underground salt cavern that was used to store compressed air that generated with wind turbines. That compressed air was then used to run gas turbines in an electric power plant. Since 2/3 of the natural gas used by an electric turbine is used to compress the air, this arrangement was used to reduce fuel usage by 66%. After implementing a pilot project and successfully demonstrating its capabilities, the project was deemed "not Green enough" and abandoned.
There is another gravity assisted storage option: heavy trains (like 10000 tons or more) on a very steep track up and down a hill, crawling slowly uphill while consuming electricity and going slowly downhill while generating electricity. This can easily be scaled where hills are available. Here in Switzerland they could be built next to the skilifts, where we have infrastructure already available. They could help store renewable energy like wind and solar and they basically last forever if maintained properly.
Oh yah that’s a good one and a good use for stuff as it nears retirement
Similar to pumped hydroelectric storage there are companies designing gravity batteries that use giant weights installed into vertical shafts underground. When the power comes in from solar or wind the weight is pulled up, and when no power is coming in gravity pull the weight down and puts that energy back into the grid. The benefits of this over a pumped hydro system is that they can be installed anywhere a vertical shaft can be dug, and can have the horizontal footprint of garden shed.
I 'member a article about someone working on a ceramic flywheel with maglev bearing and in a vacuum to power car, that sounded amazing, about 30 years ago..
I know someone who worked on the NASA kinetic battery system. The entire system was canceled last time I talked to them. While technically feasible, although challenging, modern chemical battery storage has just gotten so much cheaper than kinetic systems. This has pushed out any realistic use in the space program as far as I know. I have seen so many "new technologies" or rekindled interest in old ones during my lifetime. The only company I have really seen to make a real difference is Tesla. I believe that their biggest impact is not to the Car Industry, but to the Fossil Fuel Industry. I know that some technologies are not encouraged or discouraged based on their merit, but on entrenched Fossil Fuel and Nuclear interest. So the question always comes back to finding support and proving that a technology is able to be cheaper and better than those it displaces , and is able to be produced in large scale. Wind Power, Solar Power, and now Battery Storage, have all shown their merits, cost, and scalability to be able to change the course of industries and how we live. The others that you mention have yet to be proven. While some may need a champion like Elon Musk to bring them into widespread usage, others just will never be practical based on inherent limitations of the technology.
Ricky the 2Bit, keeps bring back inventions of the past. Many historical inventions that work use this Spinwheel concept action, even the most advance geo-scoptical gyro directional theoridical sightings of disc shape "UFO" have harnest the Spinwheel jive.🛸🛰🎢🎡🎠
A lighter option is using a coil spring (circular spring that can hold many windings of energy), and it can be discharged through a generator when no energy (of a specific form) is present. Point 2: molten salts (used in mirror solar arrays) can run a sterling engine. Point 3: If you combine tidal power (offset with bays and harbors), small scale river and stream power (non-dam), solar arrays (fresnel lenses, or mirror arrays, to heat molten salt), and wind power (smaller scale is more efficient over time), you should have a combination that gives close to 24hrs/day power.
Thermal Mass storage is an interesting thing too
The old " friction powered" toys used flywheels. Push a toy car to spin the flywheel, and let it go.
Years ago, I saw a freon engine that used waste heat from a industrial/institutional boiler to drive it. This was the mid '80s.
Aren't some buses powered by big capacitors? They're charged at each stop by overhead induction chargers. They charge quickly, and have a longer life than batteries, but are only good for short trips, which is fine for city buses.
Your videos would be great for junior high science classes...
Years ago I saw a video regarding a wind up car. A huge spring is wound up to store the energy and slowly released to travel. Haven't heard of this since so it's probably inefficient. I always thought this is a neat idea for limited traveling. No pollution or motor.
I am so glad you are going full time! Loved this as usual!
I remember a story about a company here in the netherlands that has machines that require a high power connection at startup but when started their powerneed would drop significantly. Their maximum power grid connection is lower then the power required so they set up a flywheelsystem that can build up momentum and at the time of need generate the excess capacity to start the machine and then generate power untill the momentum is gone and would start up when more power is needed again.
Another consideration of spinning a large heavy weight spinning at speed is the gyroscopic effect. You can't ignore it. It would effect the handling of any vehicle. Add to that the additional weight of the flywheel it's lubrication and maintenance and initial power requirement, I think it's being sold with somewhat rose coloured glasses...
Episode on rotary Sterling flywheel huybrid with graphene cryo-coils for MW store/extract in inertial-stabilizing double-gimbal mount, please!
Flywheels are more efficient in stationary applications because of weight. Energy is needed to move the heavy flywheel from a stopped position.
Great Information. Would like to know more about Sterling generator!
What will still make the biggest change will be nominal improvements in various battery tech. The wind blows, battery storage. The sun shines? Battery storage. No need for tiny hydroelectric which relies on no droughts, and no flywheels necessary. It will be the easiest to perfect and the cheapest for people to buy. Good science history though!
Swiss people would not be impressed by your pronunciation of Oerlikon :) The video, as always, is superb. I am very interested in flywheels - I did not know they are so good at the storage and longevity.
This is super interesting stuff. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I never knew! Now I must build a solar flywheel battery bank!
Compressed air looks good for Ohio. We have dry salt caves. I don't worry so much about efficiency as I do about cost. Cost is the ultimate decider.
This may be off topic, but I think someone might find it interesting.
Piston style over unity electric generator. By AMA
Motor segment:
1 motor with bar connected to it standing vertically
circular disc connected to bar that has magnets embedded in it surrounded in high permeability material to focus magnets outward pushing force in an upwards direction from top of disc.
Power Bar segment (Just name I gave it)
Hollowed out cylindrical Bar of material horizontally positioned.
donut shaped material with openings around its flat edge for magnets surrounded in high permeability material to be embedded.
place these all along the cylindrical bar connected to it solidly. except at far ends of bar.
At both ends of bar rings of material that can be magnetically repelled in specific locations (magnetically repelled in specific location is in reference to outside of ring area that faces away from center of bar)(Other side of same ring facing in towards center of bar is capable of magnetic repulsion all around) are connected solidly to bar. points of repulsion on these rings is off set from each other on each end of bar.
3 Hollow donut ring structure with connecting bar:
Ring structure has all magnetic repulsion on inside of donut shape & and can rap around the main bar so that the bar wont be causing friction on things as it moves back and forth. 1st positioned around far left of bar, 2nd position center of bar & 3rd positioned on far right of bar.
Tube structure is constructed in two parts that fit together on top of each other length wise over main structure & has openings for bar to the Ring structure that is connected around the main bar keeping it from causing friction on structure with it's magnetic padding. This tube structure is designed with material that does not block magnetic fields. Perhaps some type of transparent material glass or other. At both ends of the tube structure there is a built in groove that will house a disc, the groove has 4 points, top bottom left and right that has small magnets embedded in it on the inside so that the pushing force from magnets is pushing in towards the edge of disc that goes in this spot. The disc has ring around it that is repelled by magnetic fields so the 4 small magnets will keep it lined up but it will be able to spin without causing friction on structure. The disc has openings on it's flat side that face inside of tube and magnets surrounded in high permeability material are embedded in this disc. The disc has small bar that is connected to it that goes all the way to the other end of Power bar structure through the center of the hollowed out bar and connects to disc on other end. Disc on other end is set up the same but magnets embedded in it are off set in comparison. As first disc spins the magnetic fields will push against specific spot on disc connected directly to bar, pushing bar in other direction, once bar is fully pushed over, further spinning of disc will then align the other sides magnet to push it back. Tube structure also has half moon shaped protrusion on inside and on both halves so when tube is connected they line up to make a full ring shape on inside of tube, these half moon shaped protrusions have at least 1 small round opening on it's side in middle of curve that faces away from center of bar. The opening has a small magnet embedded in it so magnetic force is repelling out sideways away from center of bar. The protruding ring is positioned to line up slightly further in towards center of bar then the ring of magnetically repelled material connected directly to bar. This way when bar moves to right this magnet will act as a stopper keeping bar from going to far & same setup on other side will keep bar from going to far to left.
Copper coil setup:
copper coils are wound up as if wound around the width of wood board for a distance equal to width of magnetic ring setup on bar. Wound copper coils are then looped around the tube like a donut lined up perpendicular to magnetic fields. Ends of copper coils are connected into separate construct that will allow electrical current to flow somewhere else.
Circular construct is built like a stand that goes around the outside of motor segment.
Circular construct has flat ring of high permeability (magnetic field shielding) material that has small openings that will allow magnetic fields through specific locations. Top of circular construct has groove to allow the power bar to balance on. Circular construct can also be placed on other end of power bar so it is balanced. The motor segment is positioned so the disc connected to the bar that is connected to the motor is lined up so the disc passes under the power bars disc that is at end of power bar. The high permeability material keeps the magnetic field from the embedded magnets exerting their force upwards from hitting into the disc in the power bar until just the right moment when the impact will cause the disc in power bar to spin which will perpetuate the piston motion in the power bar. More power bars of the same design are built and positioned around the motor segment in a circular fashion all the way around. The bar connected to the motor can be increased in length to desired height and more of the exact same setup is repeated higher and higher up maximizing the over unity potential of the construct to ridiculous proportions. :D Current from the power bars is diverted to power the motor as needed and all other current is diverted to power my game console or the world. :) Interesting variation to this design would be to connect the spinning discs on far ends of power bar to main bar that magnets are connected to so the magnets spin instead of getting pistoned back and forth. So long as moving magnetic fields are perpendicular to copper wires it should work.
By AMA
I was only thinking about this the other day. Maybe coastal areas could also make salt water damns for hydro-electric, using renewable to refill its capacity.
Good old Mechanical engineering, with just a touch of electronic warfare... !
There was an article in _POPULAR MECHANICS_ magazine {or a similar publication} about flywheel batteries at least as far back as the 1980s. It might have even been in the 1970s, I am not certain of the date.
Yah absolutely it’s nothing new… but people are getting more clever about solving our grid storage issues
Great stuff Ricky, keep them coming. I like your short and fact filled format.
Thank you Hugh and thank you for being in the tribe! You make this possible! I appreciate you!
The fly wheel of an engine buffers the impulses from combustion that drive the pistons/con rods via the crankshaft. By this, a continuous exchange of momentum is established between the mass of the flywheel and the masses of the reciprocating pistons/con rods. The result is a smooth rotational input to the transmission. This continuous exchange of momentum explains why no energy is lost from reciprocating the pistons/con rods. The only loss is from the various forms of friction. It has nothing to do with shifting.
How about a video on stacked kinetic energy storage? It stacks blocks during the surplus times to use the weight of the blocks to run generators by "unstacking" the blocks... using cranes.
I don't know much else about it, but it seems like an intriguing idea and would seem to be more efficient than pumped hydro.
I have that one planned. I’m waiting to see if I can get an exclusive interview for it
@@TwoBitDaVinci Sounds good! Thanks!
Yes, more information on the Stirling Engine please.
Coming on Friday. 🙏
I know it's probably not economically viable, but whenever I see these things I always think off all the ways that you could combine these- cover wind turbines with solar, and if they are out at sea harvest wave and tidal at the same spot and skim the algae for biofuel...
It's like Rube Goldberg energy storage- Make a giant mass for a weight drop generator, but pressurize the shaft first (and use that energy first), then spin the whole mass as a flywheel, and oh, by the way, the mass is also made out of batteries and the walls of the shaft are lined with heat exchangers and any waste heat that gets beyond all that is captured with piezo electric switches...
Hmm... I wonder how much energy you could get dropping meteors down a space elevator...
You missed the option of large weights being lifted up to a specific heights and then using gravity to power dynamos. Something that can be implemented cheaply at an individual level, like for a house.
I look forward to the Stirling engine video along with other uses of heat pumps like closed loop geothermal, hvac, oceanic thermal energy conversion, along with solar assist heat pumps that cool solar panels and warm water/ generate energy, along with the use of different working fluids to achieve a certain use. Great topic.
Think how useful as a back up cooling system for reactors it could be along with co-generation when in operation.
I live in Tucson, Arizona, and I've often thought that along with solar, hot areas like this ought to have Sterling engines to offset our AC bills
Have a look at The Windup Girl. They use springs!
Flywheel VS Liquid Metal Batteries... GO!
I remember hearing of a lot of the items you mention in the video, but they’ve fallen to the wayside for any number of reasons. It seems whatever’s being talked about on social media is considered to be the “latest and greatest”, however there are plenty of old technologies that just sit until discovered again…
Yes, I’d vote for revisiting some of these older new again technologies.
post 1: kudos on subject 1, there's a number of researchers in flywheel tech that are interested mainly because of the efficiency aspects, there needs to be much more performed on mag-lev implementation, please do a follow-up video about that encouraging younger viewers to get involved, if memory serves me corr'ly - there's a prototype bicycle u can cover, one 'hobby approach' might be to suggest younger viewers to have a design competition for flywheel go-karts that u could host on a separate video/venue
Absolutely LOVE your videos . Thank you. Keep them coming ...
Pure Quantity Content!!
I don't know what became of it, but I remember, maybe sometime in the 90s, there was a company (French, I think) that was looking into air pressure cars and another company was looking to use air pressure for regenerative breaking for larger vehicles (the math didn't work as well for smaller vehicles).
I think you are making all these technologies look rosier than reality. As said they are not new, and all have challenges that have prevented their mainstream use. Cost usually being the largest, then reliability (which affects cost). As conventional methods become more expensive (monetarily, or environmentally) some of these technologies will start becoming more attractive, but there haven't been any revolutions in technology that suddenly make them work or particularly viable.
Could get a lot of energy stored by pumping lake tahoe up to the top of the Rocky Mountains. Many conventional hydro plants could be updated/operated as a pumped storage system. Quebec Hydro comes to mind here.
Another twist on the compressed air battery is Highview Power's 'CRYOBattery' or liquid air battery being built in Manchester, UK.
I really like this one.
The trouble with flywheels is that you have to have a large enough structure/mass to make it worth it...which is ok when talking about a battery storage site. Much less so when you are talking about flying it to space...
Would love to see more of the swiss (and any other!) gyro bus!
GyroBus episode: Yes.
"Who wrote this script"? Who thinks a Chevy Celebrity is a Dodge truck? I resend my thumbs up
Just asking for your opinion on a different concept of my own that is quite basic. The build can at least be of 2 ultra strong permanent magnets, one above another where the top magnet stays stationary on a plastic* container maybe filled with water while the other is inside that container. Between the top magnet and the container needs to be a very narrow gap for which a light sheet of lead* can easily slide between the magnets just enough to cause the bottom magnet to fall as if it were a delicate power switch that the rise and fall will help* generate more electrical power than it would take to move the lead* sheet in and out of that gap in least frictionless way, maybe levitated by other magnets. The water is basic to prevent damaging and even far too much noise.
.
In summary... it would be as if the permanent magnets can be switch on and off like electro-magnets.
.
I tend to come up with a whole lot of various ideas that worked out awesomely, but... not often able to test my ideas out.
Great discussion document
Thank you
Stuart in Ireland
There are two pump storage systems in Georgia which work well. One is the dam on Lake Oconee and the other is Rocky Mountain near Rome. Both essentially have a man made lakes above and below. RM was discovered when power company engineers in the early 70’s were flying in a helicopter between coal plants after seeing this idea at a conference. Both have reversible pump turbines.
As usual a great video. You just stopped too soon. I wish you had covered liquified air and weights, etc. I realize you have time constraints but they’re a few other methods people are trying and I’d love to hear about them.
Back in the late '60s and early '70s, magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Mechanics used talk all the time about Stirling engines and flywheel energy storage as... for example... part of suburban houses(!). Mahalo for bringing these ideas back into the modern public consciousness! We have newer technologies... and the impetus of unfavourable climate change... to spur further development.
First; Great show. B; Looking forward to the next one III; I appreciate all the hard work. Remarkable.
Much appreciated!
Flywheels are for big/ huge energy storage systems..they cannot respond to instantaneous high energy demands..like in momentary grid failure../ tripping ..and have to be complimented with other energy storage systems...for better yields.
I think one of the most powerful and everlasting batteries is the rise and fall of the tides....with a dammed enclosure you can capture the energy of the water both flowing in and flowing out.
This is the same a a man made device called a mill pond where a small stream of water is collected in the mill pond and released to drive a water wheel, normally the stream is too small to drive the water wheel but when it's stored it has a huge potential energy due to the weight of the volume of water stored......it's a battery, and like a battery it's capacity is limited by it's volume of storage.
You cannot compress water to make more capacity in a smaller space and at the same time you cannot compress air in a smaller space to get more capacity because in the end you end up with liquid air and that is the same as liquid water that can only release the energy by applying more energy in the form of heat to make steam to get the stored energy out.
That flywheel bus system was incredibly interesting when I first heard about them (long after they were retired)
The buses were retired for a reason - primarily because they needed almost continuous maintenance and were always breaking down. The problem is that whenever the orientation of the rotational axis is changed, there is a huge right angle thrust on the mounting bearings. The only orientation that would work well in a bus would be with vertical mounting and that only if the bus ran on a level surface (no up/down) angle changes.
One of the magazines, probably either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics, had a long article in one of their issues - back in the 60s.
@@buggsy5 this makes sense, especially with the lubrication tech we had back then.
In space a flywheel arrangement can also replace vernier jets for pitch roll and yaw.
Thank you!
Not entirely... the flywheel of an internal combustion engine keeps the crankshaft spinning between combustion strokes of the cylinders but does create a smoother flow of torque for engines with large numbers of cylinders, like >6 or 8.
Yes, with no flywheel, the engine rpm would drop between shifts, but without the flywheel, the engine wouldn't keep running at idle, either.
Can you do a video on cars that run on compressed air. This technology has been around since the 1800's. People have been working on these kind of small vehicles in Europe for over a couple of decades. Thank you.
YES to Sterling engines
I look at the loads for my solar+storage setup. Heating and cooling, is one of the biggest loads. If this can be offset by underground storage, with heat pump, this would be real gain. It would take the load off the electrical (electronics and lighting). The big problem is cost of drilling. Maybe some of the technology from Musk's Boring company can help with this? (Also, a "smart" hot water heater as a storage device, in coordination with the solar+storage setup?)
Compression batteries are "only" 70% efficient? So, only 2 or 3 times more efficient than using renewable hydrogen and less complex! Bring it on!
The Stirling engine has always been just around the corner, but never came. It has reciprocating pistons so cannot be highly efficient. I did read a rotary version was made in some R&D. That would be a great advance. For automotive use it is too big and heavy. Great for a hybrid in a large vehicle like a truck, bus, train or ship. It actually powers submarines.
The Stirling is limited to niche applications. But worth a vid on it.
I turned my potential energy into kinetic energy by liking and subscribing
Woohoo! I appreciate you!
Are you having a Dad Joke contest with Matt? 😂😂
Please do more in-depth videos on the most practical, and most Green (non-Chemical) Mechanical Power Storage solutions, and also Botanical/ Biological Power Storage (and Carbon Capture) solutions.
Thanks for watching Gairik, we have some of those plan for the next couple of months.
9:50 "Then, when the power demand increases, the flood gates open and all the dam water flows through the turbine"
At risk of being pedantic, the penstock gates are what open to admit damed water to the turbines.
Sterling Engine full video
If I wanted to suspend a concrete block in the air to use as potential energy to power my home for a day, it would have to be suspended more than 32ft in the air if the block of concrete was 9 feet by 40 feet by 50 feet, or roughly the square footage of my house and 9 feet high.
Wow!!
As cool as the idea of mechanical batteries in the form of suspended weights are, there is very little potential energy there. We'd have to suspend a loaded semi and trailer (or equivalent) at 100 meters just to equal the energy in a liter of petrol. On the positive side, there isn't much holding us back from building nearly infinite amounts of them. Maybe it should just remind us to appreciate energy more.
Yes the Bus and Car more more. Thank you
Already published! th-cam.com/video/LHyUDihL_FQ/w-d-xo.html
I look forward to the deep dives of the gyro bus and the sterling generator too.
Wait. Wouldn't a flywheel on a satellite induce things like unwanted gyroscopic procession? They use spinning wheels, reaction control wheels, to orient satellites so I know it would. So then if you're going to put a flywheel on a satellite, you would need two spinning in opposite directions and they would have to charge and discharge at exactly the same rate. Even the smallest deviation between the two would, over time, induce a drift in the satellites orientation. And flywheels are heavy. Wouldn't it make your satellite cost a lot more to get to orbit?
For large-scale power storage/generation, I would like to see more done with systems that harness the immense power of the oceanic tides. There are several different types of models that have been made on a small scale. The motion of water doesn't have to be vertical like at a fall. The moon's rotation around the earth combined with its effect on the water is already providing absolutely massive kinetic energy. I have nothing against wind, and solar, but hydro is a lot more predictable and much more powerful.
I believe the first hydroelectric plant was on the fox river in Wisconsin in the late 1880s
Solar thermal is far more efficient than photovoltaic. In Hawaii many people have solar thermal on their roofs, more even than photovoltaic. Has this caught on in the southwest?
Converting solar directly to hot water is much more efficient than running a hot water heater off electricity from photovoltaic or anywhere. Might make a good video topic. When I lived on the windward (rainy) side of oahu we had hot water year round without need for the backup heating element - though it did cool off a bit once or twice with like 4+ days of rain… but overall it was great!
Love how you concentrate on storage and completely leave out the extra production capacity needed to produce stored energy. You also forgot to include locations that are not suitable for renewables. Eg: areas with low wind, a shortage of sunlight and no geological formations currently accessible to geothermal production.
Storage is only one of the hurdles currently plaguing the 100% renewable grid. It would be great to completely cover Nevada, half of commiefornia, New Mexico, Texas and most of Utah with solar but I doubt convincing the residents will go over well. As well as setting up hundreds of thousands of wind turbines across the most windy areas in the country or even destroy a swath of national park in Hawaii for geothermal plants would be popular. And what of Alaska? Do those residents get to freeze, starve and die without electricity and food? Quite possibly come up with a type of storage that lasts for 6 months or better....
I crunched the cost numbers on replacing thermal production with wind and solar. The numbers are frightening, to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars. That doesn't even touch the planned obsolescence of the internal combustion engine and increased grid demand of charging 300 million electric vehicles.
We won't even get started on the impact of a carbon zero agriculture industry.
All in all, running completely on renewables in the next 30 years is virtually impossible without sacrificing 99 out of every 100 lives.
I think you're forgetting about nuclear there bud. We definitely do have the technology and the production capacity to meet demand and store energy, power grids do need adapting regardless. As for your zero carbon agriculture, I have to agree. There is a massive carbon foot print associated with the industry, but we need people like you to be proponents of green energy production, not a pessimist. No doubt, wind and solar are not the solution but they are a part of the bigger picture and with 173TW of solar energy every day there is definitely a market to exploit.
Ever heard of a vacuum enclosed and magnetically levitated magnetic rotor and flywheel? This was once proposed in the late 1970s and then it disappeared.
Great set of videos. Cam here from the flywheel bus video. If you don't mind, wanted to ask as to how you get such cinematic, boomy voice ? I've met a lot of deep, baritone voiced people, but very few of them could sound like this when recorded.
His voice is incredible
You think so! You made my day 🙏
@@TwoBitDaVinci haha am glad..The choice of music and your voice is really incredible. Cutting off bg music when proving a point can make the video even more incredible. Overall I love your videos.
Best Subscribe argument ever!
Correction, in 1895 the world's first hydroelectric power plant at the Niagara Falls, not 1907.
So to move forward we can look backward :-) Hey, whatever it takes! I say we look into it all. Thank you Rick
Well said, thank YOU Charles!
Awesome video. Greetings from Brazil.
There really is no need in the long term for energy storage (it is useful for load balancing, however). Since the Sun shines 24 hours a day you just need a world wide grid to use electricity anywhere as it's created. The resultant energy is cheaper, there is a built in world wide incentive to switch to green energy, and you can ramp up nuclear plants to their designed output instead of their currently less safe and less efficient throttled condition.