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Glenn Research Center
1990 Phase I

Carbon Fiber Flywheel for Power Generation and Attitude Control

SatCon Technology Corporation

Boston, MA

A 2 Kw/hr carbon fiber flywheel capable of power over a speed range of 20,000-40,000 rpm

• Demonstrated control of a flywheel supported on magnetic bearings to reduce parasitic losses of the system
  
• Characterized key design issues for composite flywheel and magnetic actuator design, as well as flywheel control
  

• Technology was directly applied to the flywheel energy storage program SatCon had with Chrysler’s Patriot Race Car project in the early 90’s, a high performance hybrid electric race vehicle, that used flywheel energy storage to improve the efficiency by load-leveling a turbine-alternator; the overall program resulted in some 63 patents some jointly held with Chrysler
  
• SatCon spun off the terrestrial flywheel business and formed BEACON Power Systems, Inc, which provides large scale flywheel systems to a number of public utility systems such as Pacific Gas and Electricity
  

• The flywheel development was aimed at a combined energy storage and attitude control system which could be used on all types of NASA, commercial, and military spacecraft
  
• SatCon is a niche player in aerospace flywheel attitude control systems, able to design specialty systems to meet unique customer requirements

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Curator: SBIR Support               7/24/07