Israel-based Zooz Power will use its flywheel technology to charge electric rental cars at New York City’s LaGuardia airport.
Formerly known as Chakratec, Zooz recently announced a memorandum of understanding with an unnamed car rental company to pilot flywheel energy charging at LaGuardia beginning in the second quarter of 2023.
The partner rental company “is operating thousands of car rental sites in over 100 countries,” Zooz said in a press release, adding that more sites will be consider with the yearlong New York pilot program is successful.
Chakratec flywheel-based Kinetic Energy Storage systems for EV charging, grid-balancing
The technology is a form of kinetic energy storage, which relies on spinning massive flywheels to store energy in place of batteries. Flywheels rotate in canisters, where they’re suspended in a vacuum. An electric motor “spins up” each flywheel to an ideal speed, then doubles as a generator as the flywheel “spins down,” using that energy to charge EVs.
The tech helps reduce the peak load on the grid, while allowing higher charge power. And as the company has said before, flywheels can be located in some places where batteries wouldn’t be advisable, like inside or underground. That’s particularly relevant for car rental sites, where grid constraints could limit implementation of conventional charging infrastructure, Zooz claims.
Flywheel-based hybrid tech originated in racing—and carried over to a few prototypes—but it’s shown much more promise in stationary installations.
Chakratec flywheel-based Kinetic Energy Storage systems for EV charging, grid-balancing
Battery-boosted charging is an increasingly popular option for locations where high-power grid upgrades aren’t feasible, allowing fast charging from existing low-voltage electricity service. And charging networks have discovered that it allows more flexibility for fast-charging locations.
Zooz doesn’t say which rental company is involved, but Hertz has announced intent to have tens of thousands of EVs in its fleet from Tesla, GM, Polestar, and perhaps others. And BP has already been announced as a partner to help keep rental EVs charged.
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