Flywheel firm Chakratec has installed its technology inside a hotel in Leipzig, Germany, to fast-charge electric vehicles in less than 15 minutes.
The Israel-based company deployed its 100kW/32kWh Kinetic Power Booster (KPB) technology to back up the ‘hotel’s problem of insufficient power in the grid’.
The system can be charged from the grid in around 30 minutes, if the grid is about 50kW and the KPB has 30kW of power.
With a 50kW grid and 100kW from the power booster a total of 150kW can be transferred to the chargers and any mix of cars can be recharged in 12-15 minutes, depending on the charger and vehicle’s battery.
Nir Zohar, co-founder and chief customer officer at Chakratec, told BEST: “The KPB is deployed to boost existing grid infrastructure and enable ultra-fast EV charging stations anywhere. The power of the recharging unit depends on the availability of local power.
In addition to EV charging, its energy management system manages peak loads to prevent high demand charges, while applications such as back-up power systems (BPS) can be added to ensure 24-hour EV charging as well as services to the hotel such as powering its elevator during outages.
In 2019, Chakratec deployed its kinetic flywheel technology in the Czech Republic at a Škoda Auto DigiLab pilot charging point at the Prague Exhibition Centre in Letňany.