A flywheel from a Formula 1 car will be tested on London buses in hope that it can improve fuel efficiency as much as 30%.
The flywheel, developed by racing car builder Williams F1, captures energy from deceleration which is then re-used when the vehicle accelerates.
Unlike massively heavy flywheel technology of the past, the Williams product weighs just 50 kg. It stores energy not in mass like its predecessors but in speed, reaching up to 40,000 rpm.
That would be Kinetic Energy Recovery System or KERS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_energy_recovery_system
ReplyDeleteCuJo, the idea itself has been around a long time. What Williams F1 has done is find a way to harness that power in a low-weight, ultra-high speed flywheel. That's what makes it really viable for commercial applications.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty cool
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