An overview of Boeing flywheel energy storage systems with high-temperature superconducting bearings

Abstract

An overview summary of recent Boeing work on high-temperature superconducting (HTS) bearings is presented. A design is presented for a small flywheel energy storage system that is deployable in a field installation. The flywheel is suspended by a HTS bearing whose stator is conduction cooled by connection to a cryocooler. At full speed, the flywheel has 5 kW h of kinetic energy, and it can deliver 3 kW of three-phase 208 V power to an electrical load. The entire system, which includes a containment structure, is compatible with transportation by forklift or crane. Laboratory measurements of the bearing loss are combined with the parasitic loads to estimate the efficiency of the system. Improvements in structural composites are expected to enable the operation of flywheels with very high rim velocities. Small versions of such flywheels will be capable of very high rotational rates and will likely require the low loss inherent in HTS bearings to achieve these speeds. We present results of experiments with small-diameter rotors that use HTS bearings for levitation and rotate in vacuum at kHz rates. Bearing losses are presented as a function of rotor speed.