"On Kodiak Island, Flywheels Are In And Diesel Is 99.8% Out"

"KODIAK, Alaska -- Darron Scott, CEO of the Kodiak Electric Association, unlocked the door to a small building on a gravel road along Chiniak Bay and pointed to two innocuous metal boxes tucked into a corner beyond a bank of computers.

'Those are the flywheels,' Scott said, turning on a computer screen to follow the ebb and flow of the system's electrical output.

More than a mile down the coast, a 340-foot-tall electric crane operated by Matson Inc. shipping company lifted a series of heavy metal cargo containers from the shore and transferred them onto the deck of a waiting ship.

Each time the regenerative crane raised a container into the air, it pulled electricity from the flywheel energy storage system. As it lowered its load, electricity flowed back to the flywheels."

Margaret Kriz Hobson reports for EnergyWire June 10, 2016.