Flywheel energy storage at a glance
- Nova Spin, our flywheel battery, stores energy kinetically. In doing so, it avoids many of the limitations of chemical batteries. It can charge and discharge 10x faster, its performance isn’t affected by temperature, and it’s manufactured using widely available materials.
- Nova Spin offer a number of advantages for grid operators. It can serve as a spinning reserve, support black starts, and regulate grid frequency and voltage in real time.
- Commercial customers benefit from Nova Spin’s capabilities as well. Its high charging and discharging speeds allow it to offset spikes in electricity demand more effectively than chemical batteries, greatly reducing peak demand charges.
- Nova Spin is paired with Nova Pulse, our modular chemical battery. This hybrid configuration covers both large surges in demand as well as steady base-load supply. By doing most of the heavy lifting, Nova Spin doubles the lifespan of its chemical battery counterpart, reducing overall levelized storage costs.
Utility Providers
Inertial-based storage built to support the grid
Nova Spin serves a number of functions vital to maintaining grid stability.
- Spinning Reserve
Nova Spin can deliver full power output almost instantaneously without fuel consumption, reducing operational costs and environmental impact by minimizing the need for fossil fuel-based backup generation.
- Frequency & Voltage Regulation
Nova Spin smooths frequency to 60 Hz, manages reactive power, and maintains voltages at 208 or 480 V depending on its placement along sub-transmission and distribution lines.
- Black Start Capabilities
Because of its ability to quickly discharge electricity without an external power source, Nova Spin can provide the initial energy required to kick-start the grid restoration process, reducing downtime, and enhancing resilience.
- Integration of Renewables
As more renewable power sources integrate with the grid, Nova Spin helps manage intermittency issues while reducing reliance on synthetic inertia.
- Infrastructure Support
By alleviating surges in demand, Nova Spin reduces the burden on aging grid assets, improving operational lifespans and delaying the need for expensive upgrades or expansions to supply.
Commercial Businesses
Energy storage designed for C&I businesses
Nova Spin is engineered to maximize value, reduce costs, and support operations.
- Peak-demand Shaving
Nova Spin charges and discharges 10x faster than chemical batteries, allowing it to offset demand spikes more effectively than traditional solutions, minimizing costly peak-demand charges.
- 2x Longer Lifespan
By responding to spikes in demand, Nova Spin reduces strain on Nova Pulse, its chemical battery counterpart, leading to a 2x longer lifespan than many chemical-only solutions.
- Protection For Sensitive Equipment
Nova Spin smooths any frequency irregularities in your building's power supply, protecting key equipment from damage or disruption.
EV Charging
Support EV fast-charging with flywheel storage
Nova Spin's high C-rating makes it uniquely suited to supporting EV charging. When integrated into fast-charging stations, Nova Spin stores energy during low-demand periods and releases it when charging draws increase. This approach effectively balances the load, reduces stress on grid infrastructure, minimizes the need for costly upgrades, and enhances the efficiency of the charging station.
Microgrids
Create more robust microgrids
Its frequency and voltage regulation capabilities, high C-rating, minimal maintenance requirements, and tolerance for extreme temperatures make Nova Spin ideal for supporting microgrids. It automatically smooths and stores power from intermittent renewable sources and easily handles sudden surges in demand, increasing the overall resilience of microgrid systems.
Environmentally Friendly Storage
Nova Spin is 95% recyclable
Nova Spin
Key Features
- High Power Density
Nova Spin's C-rating is 10x greater than chemical batteries, allowing it to deliver large amounts of power over short durations. This stored energy is available within milliseconds, making Nova Spin well-suited to applications requiring immediate bursts of power.
- Fast, Frequent Cycling
Nova Spin is designed to handle tens-of-thousands of cycles, allowing it to frequently ramp up to full power output or input without significant degradation.
- High Round-Trip Efficiency
Depending on system design and operational parameters, Nova Spin typically achieves 85% to 95% round-trip-efficiency.
- Lower Levelized Storage Costs
Nova Spin lasts 25 years with minimal maintenance and extends the lifespan of chemical batteries by 2x, greatly reducing the overall levelized cost of storage installations.
Nova Spin
Details & Specs
- Storage Type
Kinetic battery
- Service Life
25 years, 50,000+ power cycles
- Service Cycle
10 years
- Recyclability
95%
- Performance
Not affected by extreme heat or cold fluctuations
- Functions
Quickly charges and discharges large amounts of power. Reduces load on chemical battery counterpart. Smooths grid frequency issues to protect sensitive equipment. Minimizes peak-demand charges.
System certifications
- IEEE
IEEE 1547-2018, IEEE 1547.1-2020, IEEE 1547.4-2011
- UL
UL 9540, UL 1741
- ISO
ISO 9001, ISO 14001
- IEC
IEC 61850, IEC 62351
