Safer solutions for power management

Marine flywheel power management and distribution

By using kinetic energy flywheel solutions for power management and distribution rather than chemical storage you remove the risks of battery off-gassing and thermal runaway, making your vessel safer from fire hazards in line with SOLAS chapter II-2. With a long life, reduced fire risk and low maintenance, flywheels are ideal for marine applications.

Safety issues with chemical storage for marine vessels

There are a number of safety issues with existing chemical energy storage systems (ESS) on marine vessels. The following is a non-exhaustive list of these issues.

• Thermal runaway is a fire risk and is a known issue with certain lithium ion batteries
• Hydrogen gas is evolved from lead acid batteries whilst in use
• Electric shock is a potential maintenance and firefighting hazard
• The chemicals in batteries can be an ongoing maintenance hazard
• Breached batteries can produce various hazardous fumes and liquids

Uses of flywheels for marine applications

It must be noted that flywheels are not necessarily direct replacements for other energy storage systems due to their characteristics (see our technology page for more information). There are however a number of potential uses of flywheels in marine applications but very little work has been done to date to show the effectiveness of ESS systems. The use of ESS in marine is relatively new, but a few suggested applications include

• Capturing energy from on-board lifting devices (see our lifting devices page)
• Power management and distribution
• Aids to navigation (e.g. lighthouses)
• Anti-idling
• Small craft gyroscopic roll stabilization