{"id":345973,"date":"2024-10-08T15:27:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T13:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345973"},"modified":"2024-10-08T15:27:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T13:27:25","slug":"lets-burn-money-ed-flywheels-could-power-the-uk-for-half-a-second-at-a-million-dollars-a-megawatt-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345973","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s burn money Ed: Flywheels could power the UK for half a second at a million dollars a megawatt hour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Paul Homewood at NotAlotofPeopleKnowThat<\/a> for finding this gem of a video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commiserations to friends in the UK, where Ed Miliband, or worse, his new National Electricity System Operator (NESO)  think that flywheels will save money because the UK won\u2019t need to maintain back up power stations and import so much electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Miliband is the Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero, which is a bit like being the Minister for War and Peace at the same time, or perhaps more like Health and Ebola.  His big new plan is to set up a big new bureaucracy (NESO) and their big idea is to stop blackouts by installing giant flywheels around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flywheels are good at smoothing out the frequency glitches, but the second largest flywheel operation in the world would only power the UK for a fraction of a second. It\u2019s going to take a lot of flywheels, or as David Evans dryly remarked, if they can speed up the flywheels it might work, but to put enough energy in, they may need to get close to the speed of light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Miliband reveals plan to prevent net zero blackouts<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Johnathon Leake, The Telegraph<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giant flywheels are to be installed around the UK to minimise the risk of blackouts as the power system goes carbon-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flywheels are energy storage systems that use surplus electricity to accelerate a massive metal \u201cwheel\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NESO said the schemes would save consumers money by cutting the need for maintaining backup power stations and importing power from overseas<\/a> via interconnectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesman said: \u201cThe pathfinders alone are expected to provide consumers with savings of \u00a314.9bn between 2025 and 2035.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Paul Burgess explains, the flywheel sales team often talk in megawatts but rarely mention megawatt-hours (probably because they are embarrassed). The worlds second largest flywheel system has 200 carbon fibre flywheels spinning in a vacuum chamber and provides 20 megawatts. But it can only supply 1 megawatt for 15 minutes<\/a>, which is a quarter of a MWh, which is a problem because the UK uses about 860,000 MWh every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Burgess estimates the second largest flywheel installation in the world can power the UK for about one 200th of a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A flywheel is like a coal generator the second after it runs out of coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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