None of this technology is outdated and much of it is still in use. Nickel-cadmium battery banks are still in use in the communications and standby power industries.
Motor generators, also known as “MG sets” are still in service for mainframe computers. In fact, IBM was one of the largest users of MG sets for decades. They consisted of a large electric motor, a flywheel, and a generator all coupled together. The motor and generator faced each other with the flywheel on the connecting shaft in between. The main reason these have been in use for such a long time is that they also provided power conversion, that is, the generator was a 400 Hz generator, so the unit as a whole not only provided standby power (known as “ride through”) for the few seconds it took to bring a generator or UPS online, but it also provided frequency conversion for the computer power supplies. -D > On Oct 21, 2019, at 10:16 AM, Floyd Thursby via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > Back ages ago I did an analysis of a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage > System (SMESS). It was an interesting concept that relied on a supercooled > magnetic torus into which electrons were injected and they kept spinning > around until some were extracted and used again. It probably would have > worked sorta OK until the supercooling went away and then all those electrons > wanted to go somewhere else... rapidly. > > --FT > >> On 10/21/19 10:05 AM, Meade Dillon via Mercedes wrote: >> That's a neat story. >> >> Reminds me of an older technology, which I have only heard about but I've >> never seen, which is using a large flywheel as a storage device. Hook that >> up to a motor-generator, so when the utility power is available, the >> flywheel gets brought up to speed, and then when the utility power drops, >> use the inertia to drive the generator until another source is brought >> online. >> >> Maybe fill up an old missile silo with massive flywheels, use that as a >> "battery" to store wind or solar that is not needed. >> ------------- >> Max >> Charleston SC >> >> >> On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 9:23 AM Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes < >> mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: >> >>> Quite surprising. >>> >>> TECHNOLOGYBig batteries are all the rage, but this one's 16 years >>> oldPublished: >>> Monday, October 21, 2019 >>> >>> New York City dove headlong into the race to build bigger and bigger >>> batteries this week, as regulators approved plans for a massive system >>> < >>> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-17/long-island-city-will-soon-be-home-to-new-york-s-biggest-battery >>> on the East River in Queens. >>> >>> But for those keeping score, the biggest of all has been quietly at work >>> for almost 16 years in a far more remote corner of America: a warehouse in >>> central Alaska. >>> >>> The 46-megawatt battery, in Fairbanks, uses a chemistry that's largely gone >>> the way of fax machines. It's old enough that its operators can't find >>> replacement parts for some components. But it still works, keeping the >>> lights in the city of 32,000 near the Arctic Circle, preventing 59 >>> blackouts last year alone. >>> >>> "Our system operators are very adamant that they don't want it to go away," >>> said Dan Bishop, manager of engineering services for the Golden Valley _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
