West Gate
James Clegern – Kinetic Energy Storage

James Clegern – Kinetic Energy Storage

James Clegern of KineticCore Solutions is advancing nonchemical battery storage technology by developing a low-cost flywheel design for longer-lasting, high-performance batteries.

About

James Clegern

KineticCore Solutions

Clegern is the president and founder of KineticCore Solutions, which is developing a nonchemical, long-life battery, lower in cost and safer than traditional solutions.

During West Gate, Clegern is testing and evaluating the performance and lifespan of KineticCore’s patented flywheel design with the goal of facilitating prototype validation.

Critical Need

The increasing strain on the nation's electrical grid requires high-power energy storage that is affordable, safe and supports a long operational life. Current solutions are expensive, disruptive to operations, weather sensitive, and often not safe enough to be placed next to facilities needing the support. KineticCore Solutions batteries solve these problems with a new spin on flywheel energy storage for stationary applications.

Potential Impact

The KineticCore Solutions battery is optimized for unlimited daily peak power support operations, but at 50%–60% lower cost than Li-ion for the same power provided. This allows an affordable, small-footprint modular system to be safely deployed anywhere peak power is needed. Commercial and industrial customers can minimize peak power draw from the grid, improving grid stability, decreasing grid overload, and, at scale, deferring billions of dollars of distribution grid upgrades. Customers using alternate energy sources can actively ramp, smooth, and shift the intermittent power flow, keeping inverters engaged longer and reduce pulsed output power from disrupting grid stability. Utility customers gain a flexible, grid regulation asset that allows chemical batteries, such as Li-ion, to be focused on safer, longer-duration applications.

Innovation and Advantages

KineticCore Solutions provides the first true flywheel structural design advancement since the industrial revolution. Utilizing standard composite winding manufacturing, the new 3D design is over 90% carbon composite and provides a 40%–60% improvement on structural strength, allowing higher speeds for the same structural materials. In initial testing, KineticCore Solutions flywheels demonstrated improved performance and the potential for 20 times the energy density of a traditional steel flywheel. Overall, kinetic batteries are manufactured with materials readily available in the United States to enable rapid production and job growth.

Profile

Status

Bench scale

Industry

Energy storage

Potential Markets

Energy storage systems for microgrids and the commercial grid
Electric vehicle charging

Looking For

Industry mentors
Funding
Strategic partnerships
Utility coordination (demand reduction support, virtual power plant integration, and marketing)
Analysis support