Wind farms associated with flywheel energy storage plants

Recent developments in flywheel technology opens new possible applications. Connecting flywheels and wind generators is not a new idea. However, flywheels were always considered as a short time compensation of stochastic output variations of wind generators instead of fully fledged means of energy storage. In this study connecting a wind farm with a flywheel system containing a number of flywheel units is proposed. Actual wind speed data from a wind farm location in South Africa is used in the study. The analysis of this system is based on algebraic optimization models of systems containing both kinds of devices. The outcome of the study illustrates the feasibility of using a flywheel plant as fully fledged energy storage solution.