Talk:Superconducting magnetic energy storage

Power vs Energy
In the "Current Use" section, it mentions several "1 MW" units. Shouldn't this be "1 MWh" units? Aren't these units rated on energy storage capacity rather than power? Dkraemer1 (talk) 16:27, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Toroidal Solenoid
What if the SMES were in the form of a toroidal solenoid? It may require more flixibility of the superconducting material, but all of the magnetic fields are containd, avoiding any health issues.

This sort of SMES design is refered to in "Engineering Electromagnetics" by Ida, but he doesn't go into any depth as it's an introductory text. --ASL 22:10, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

I think it is appropriate to mention how SMES is currently used in industry as a power conditioner, allowing for smoothing out current. I wrote a school paper on this several years back and remember that this is one spot where SMES is actually already being used. I think this may be a better way to focus this article. Maybe after talking about how we currently use this technology we can then talk about far off scheemes. If I can find my old summary of the technology I may put excerts into the talk pages so someone can put parts in the article later if they want. If nothing else, it should provide some scholarly sources. Lcolson


 * Lost my paper, but found my presentation. Excerts below. Lcolson


 * Alright, I've started working on a new article, but am going to keep it on the talk pages till its ready for prime time. Feel free to help edit.Lcolson


 * Completed integration and moved.Lcolson

Unexplained vocabulary.
The phrase "the outer hoops and two disks" is baffling. What hoops? Was there supposed to be a diagram accompanying this?

Later on in the article, "bucking cylinder" appears without explanation.

Otherwise very cool, answered a lot of questions!

Picture...
Here is a drawing of an SMES:

http://www.wtec.org/loyola/scpa/f02_05.gif

I have seen this drawing in several places on the web, so perhaps it will be able to be used in this article. 137.241.252.24 19:16, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Electrifying
A couple of things could be clearer. First, what is the "form function"? What are its parameters? Second, how does this compare, if used in very small sizes, to something like a car battery? That is, how large a solenoid (with how many turns of wire) would provide performance similar/equal to a standard 12V battery? Trekphiler 18:12, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

A couple of questions come out of this: How is the electricity put in and extracted? I'm guessing it works in a similar way to a superconducting magnet, but surely energy would be lost in this process. Don't you lose half the energy in this charging discharging process? Can the charge and discharge be done by induction? Perhaps the DC part gets in the way? Energy density would also be a useful comparison. I vaguely remember working out in undergrad that a 300Tesla magnet would be needed to get the same energy density as oil. But what sort of field would actually be used here and how does the energy density compare with oil and batteries? Would these questions be of interest? Grj23 (talk) 12:21, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Size of 1GWh-SMES
Though i'm no engineer i was a bit surprised about the size requirements of a SMES facility with a potential storage capacity of 1GWH: "To achieve commercially useful levels of storage, around 1 GW·h (3.6 TJ), a SMES installation would need a loop of around 100 miles (160 km)"

On the other hand, one can read the following passage in the listed sources [9]: "Theoretically, a coil of around 150-500 m radius would be able to support a load of 5000 MWh, at 1000 MW; depending on the peak field and ratio of the coil's height and diameter."

Given that my math is still correct and 5000 MWh equal 5 GWh, were does that difference come from? Miles vs meters? Thanks for helping me out --Ikajo 14:43, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I believe the difference is that the coil of 500m radius is about 1 mile around, and the coil would probably need 100 turns. Grj23 (talk) 12:21, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Soliton superconducting energy storage?
Free patents:http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2005/0107262.html

describe method of storing energy in solitons which may exist in superconductor.Such soliton current will not be accompanied by magnetic flux.It could meen that SMES will not have current energy storage limitations. Does somebody have comments on it?Is such a thing principally possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.73.164.254 (talk) 18:03, 20 October 2008 (UTC)