[BabyPeanut]

Press release
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/sit ... ewsLang=en

January 28, 2005 12:19 PM US Eastern Timezone

Emerson Network Power and Pentadyne Successfully Demonstrate High-Power Parallel Operation with the Liebert FS Flywheel Power System

CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2005--Pentadyne Power Corporation and Emerson Network Power today announced the successful demonstration of the Liebert FS flywheel power system with a 750 kVA Liebert Series 610 Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). The Liebert FS is the result of a partnership between Liebert and Pentadyne designed to optimize Pentadyne's Voltage Support Solution(TM) (VSS) for Liebert UPS systems.

The demonstration was conducted as a joint Liebert-Pentadyne effort at Liebert's facility in Delaware, Ohio, and was witnessed by users with high-power requirements. It involved eight Liebert FS power systems, each capable of providing 120 kW of power to the DC bus of the UPS, connected in parallel to the Liebert 610 system.

The demonstration included a series of multiple, short-duration input outages and a sustained input outage. N+2 operation of the flywheel system was also demonstrated by sustaining the load while sequentially dropping one and then a second Liebert FS unit. In each case, the flywheel system was able to provide the required power to operate the UPS at rated conditions.

"This successful demonstration highlights the flexibility and ease of integration of our Voltage Support Solution with Liebert 3-phase UPS systems, including these high power systems," said Paul Craig, CEO of Pentadyne Power Corporation. "The users who witnessed this demonstration saw how multiple flywheels can work together in parallel to meet high-power requirements."

"We are very pleased with the performance of Pentadyne's flywheel technology with our UPS system," said Bill Campbell, product manager for the Liebert FS. "We are committed to providing our customers with a reliable, proven flywheel storage energy solution for battery-less ride-through and battery-hardening power quality systems."

Pentadyne's flywheel power system provides a stable, reliable, low maintenance, extended-life DC voltage source to either replace or supplement batteries in UPS systems. The VSS 120 can completely eliminate the need for UPS batteries in many applications by providing sufficient ride-through for an orderly system shutdown or until a standby engine-generator can come on-line. To help protect batteries, the VSS 120 minimizes battery discharge "whiplash" effects commonly experienced with each use, thus improving battery reliability and preserving battery capacity for occasions that demand a longer back-up time. When connected to most UPS models, a single model VSS 120 provides sufficient energy to support loads up to 150 kVA. Multiple VSS units in parallel provide economic ride-through for power levels up to 2 MW.

About Pentadyne Power Corporation

Pentadyne designs, manufactures and markets advanced flywheel power systems that provide high quality, reliable power for power quality sensitive customers, urban rail power recycling, and urban transportation. Whether integrated into other products or used alone, Pentadyne's flywheel systems provide an economic, long lasting, low maintenance, lightweight and environmentally sound power solution for a range of applications. Pentadyne is backed by leading venture capital groups and industry players including Nth Power, DTE Energy, MVV Innovations, Sempra Energy, Electricite de France and Ben Rosen (co-founder of Sevin Rosen and Chairman emeritus of Compaq Computer). For more information, please visit Pentadyne.com or contact the representatives below. For more information on Pentadyne, visit www.pentadyne.com.

About Liebert

Liebert, an Emerson Network Power company, is the world leader in mission critical power and cooling technology. Liebert delivers unparalleled protection of critical systems through a complete range of power, environmental and monitoring systems that are tailored to application requirements by a network of local representatives that average better than 16 years of experience in the industry. Liebert Global Services is the world's largest service team dedicated to the maintenance and on-site repair of critical computer support systems. For more information on Liebert, visit www.liebert.com.

About Emerson Network Power

Emerson Network Power is an Emerson business that provides a full spectrum of reliable power solutions, including inbound power, connectivity, power supplies, power systems and precision cooling, backed by the largest global services organization in the power industry. These Emerson companies serve the needs of telecommunications networks, data centers, health care and industrial facilities worldwide. For more information, visit www.emersonnetworkpower.com.

About Emerson

St. Louis-based Emerson (www.gotoemerson.com) is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions to customers in electronics and telecommunications; process control; industrial automation; heating, ventilating and air conditioning; and appliance and tools. Sales in fiscal 2003 were $14 billion.

[Devil]

Reminds me of the old Gyrobuses in Yverdon, Switzerland. These used a bloody great flywheel for their motive power, lasting about 5 minutes of traction. Each bus stop was equipped with a post giving a 380 V three-phase supply, to top up the speed of the flywheel, 3000 rpm. It took about 3 - 4 minutes to achieve the 3000 rpm from rest. The bus had to wait a minute or two at each stop, whether there were passangers descending/alighting or not. The motor driving the flywheel became a generator to drive a motor for the wheels.

It was a great flop, economically, although it worked for a few years. The manufacturers, Oerlikon AG, in Zurich, also made trolley buses and fully electric battery buses. They claimed that if the flywheel were replaced by lead-acid batteries of the same weight, the buses could have operated a lot more efficiently and would need recharging for 10 minutes only at the terminus end of each trip, and not at each bus stop, making them a lot more viable for the passengers.

A good description with photos and diagrams is at http://www.travys.ch/Gyrobus.htm but the text of this site is in French.

[aldente]

If I understand right this is nothing remarkable but simply a source of saving energy by replacing batteries with a fly wheel. Since it does not pose a new source of energy it is of low interest and only useful for specific applications.

[BabyPeanut]

If I understand right this is nothing remarkable but simply a source of saving energy by replacing batteries with a fly wheel. Since it does not pose a new source of energy it is of low interest and only useful for specific applications.

Solar = intermittent due to night and clouds.
Wind = intermittent except in a few locations.
Battery = solution since you charge it when the intermittent renewable energy is available and discharge it when there is a shortage.
Flywheel = non-toxic, safe battery under development.

[OldSprocket]

The company I retired from had a big room full of big batteries to keep the computers running smoothly for the few minutes it took to get the large room full of big diesel generators running smoothly. Flywheels can do that. The company uses Liebert power conditioning and some bigwigs were probably watching the demonstration.

The best hope I see for flywheels in everyday life would be converting a little force over a long period into a large brief force. I saw a demonstration of a wood splitter that used an undersized engine and a flywheel. My guess is that the engine was 20 or 25 percent smaller than would be required without the flywheel.

[Devil]

Flywheel = non-toxic, safe battery under development.

There is nothing new about flywheels, they have been around, as a means of storing energy, since the start of the industrial revolution and probably a lot earlier. Early steam engines had them because they were necessary to keep the motion rotary. Every car has a flywheel. The Gyrobus I mentioned above uses exactly the same technique as the Liebert system and that was operational 50 years ago. Under development? When the physics have been known for over a couple of centuries???

[BabyPeanut]

Flywheel = non-toxic, safe battery under development.

There is nothing new about flywheels, they have been around, as a means of storing energy, since the start of the industrial revolution and probably a lot earlier. Early steam engines had them because they were necessary to keep the motion rotary. Every car has a flywheel. The Gyrobus I mentioned above uses exactly the same technique as the Liebert system and that was operational 50 years ago. Under development? When the physics have been known for over a couple of centuries???

Another losing post by the devil who fails to realize that development is more than just putting equations on paper.

was:
How ill-informed. Go look at what Beacon Power is doing.

[MarkR]

How ill-informed. Go look at what Beacon Power is doing.

To be fair, the Beacon Power flywheels are basically the same as any other. Vacuum enclosure, magnetic bearings, etc. all these are standard fayre on any energy storage flywheel system, and have been for years, if not decades.

What's new with the beacon power is the application of modern materials (i.e. carbon fibre) in a plug-and-play type product designed for the mass market. In other words they've managed to create an overall package that provides a realistic alternative to batteries in terms of overal cost of ownership, size and reliability.

[BabyPeanut]

How ill-informed. Go look at what Beacon Power is doing.

To be fair, the Beacon Power flywheels are basically the same as any other. Vacuum enclosure, magnetic bearings, etc. all these are standard fayre on any energy storage flywheel system, and have been for years, if not decades.

What's new with the beacon power is the application of modern materials (i.e. carbon fibre) in a plug-and-play type product designed for the mass market. In other words they've managed to create an overall package that provides a realistic alternative to batteries in terms of overal cost of ownership, size and reliability.

You forgot scaleability.
http://peakoil.com/fortopic4559.html

[futuretrip]

Imagine a giant mass "ring". Can't that be drawn up to preserve alot of energy fo a longer amount of time. The commercial ones are small compared to what I imagine and lose about .1 % of their power a minute ( I forget and can't seem to find it in my favorites). Perhaps the axis would have to be parallel to Earths. For stationary power storage from, say wind, it would not have to be expensive carbon fiber - just steel and lots of it. But could it be supported on magnetism (especially at the Earth axis angle) and in a vacumm? If so, does anyone want to spend some time figuring the Mw class of flywheel and its efficiency?
Thanks, Robert Bernal, USA