LA Metro Signs $3.6 Million Deal With VYCON to Harvest Energy from Speeding Subway Trains
Posted By Taz Loomans On November 14, 2012 @ 5:34 pm In clean tech,energy efficiency,green technology,Kinetic Energy | No Comments
LA Metro [4] photo from Shutterstock [5]
Today clean energy storage system manufacturer VYCON [6] announced that it has been awarded a $3.6 Million contract by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority [7] to install a flywheel energy recovery system [8] at the Red Line Westlake/MacArthur Park Station. LA Metro has already installed a photovoltaic system with a 2 Megawatt capacity, and now VYCON’s Wayside Energy Storage Substation (WESS) project will add another 2 Megawatts of green energy capacity to the rail system.
VYCON [6]’s clean energy flywheel technology works by absorbing and storing energy generated by braking trains in the line. Once a train has stopped and picked up passengers, the flywheel system can return this stored energy to help the train accelerate. Subway cars are extremely massive and take a lot of energy to accelerate, so the system could save a significant amount of energy that would otherwise be wasted in the form of heat.
In addition to harvesting kinetic energy, VYCON’s cutting-edge WESS system can eliminate train slowdowns and starts and stops. It increases system reliability by providing greater power capacity. And it creates a redundant power source in case of power outages or emergencies.
The most promising impact of VYCON’s new clean-energy [9] flywheel technology is that it could replace the chemical battery-based Traction Power Substation, which is the current technology that rail systems around the world use.
+ VYCON [6]
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URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/la-metro-signs-3-6-million-deal-with-vycon-to-harvest-energy-from-speeding-subway-trains/
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[4] LA Metro: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-3828802/stock-photo-people-boarding-the-subway-in-los-angeles-union-station-to-hollywood.html?src=e2b86a3d7b9deace72ab2af10f252ebf-1-1
[5] Shutterstock: http://www.shutterstock.com/
[6] VYCON: http://www.vyconenergy.com/
[7] Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority: http://www.metro.net/
[8] flywheel energy recovery system: http://inhabitat.com/vycon-plans-to-tap-speeding-subway-trains-for-immense-amounts-of-kinetic-energy/
[9] clean-energy: http://inhabitat.com/timbertower-the-worlds-first-wooden-wind-turbine-erected-in-germany/
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