Energy Efficiency

Williams’ energy efficiency programme has two components. First, the development of new energy technologies derived from Formula One at both Williams Hybrid Power in the UK and at the Williams Technology Centre in Qatar.

Second, active membership of the Carbon Disclosure Project in order to measure and mitigate the company’s carbon footprint.

 

 

1. WHP & New Energy Technology

In 2008 Williams invested in Williams Hybrid Power (WHP), a company developing high power flywheel energy storage technology. Williams’ initial interest in flywheel technology for kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) was driven by its application in Formula One. A flywheel is an efficient and durable energy storage device that is suited to high-power and high-cycle conditions such as regenerative braking in competition cars as much as hybrid vehicles, while adaptation of this technology also provides a far wider range of industrial and civil applications.

The technology is inherently green, recycling energy that would otherwise be lost. The technology is particularly attractive to car manufacturers who are seeking new clean solutions to meet increasingly stringent vehicle emissions regulations. For example, the EU requires that from 2015 manufacturers’ new vehicle fleet average emissions must be less than 130g/km – they are currently 159g/km. Emissions from passenger cars in Europe represent 12% of the region’s total anthropogenic output. Hybrid vehicles using technologies like WHP’s flywheel offer a cost-effective route to achieving reductions in this area.

This is one example of competition in Formula One acting as a catalyst to bring technology to market.

WHP’s flywheel solutions incorporate its novel, patented Magnetically Loaded Composite (MLC) technology. The magnets in an MLC system are comprised of tiny particles embedded in the composite matrix. With no other metal in the flywheelMLC Flywheel rotor, eddy current losses and heating are almost zero. This ultra-high efficiency means thermal management of the system is greatly simplified and the flywheel can be continuously deep-cycled with negligeable detriment to performance or reduction in life. This unique patented technology gives WHP’s system a considerable advantage. WHP’s technology has a projected life of over 10 million charge/discharge cycles—far greater than that of batteries— and it is manufactured from non-toxic, recyclable materials minimizing its environmental impact. These unique characteristics make WHP’s flywheel technology an economically viable alternative to chemical batteries for the requirements of many hybrid electric vehicles.

Eighteen months after its inception, Williams Hybrid Power announced its first project as part of the KinerStor consortium of industrial partners including Ricardo, CTG, JCB, Land Rover, SKF and Torotrak with UK government funding. The project aims to demonstrate the potential of flywheel-based hybrid systems with the ability to deliver 30 per cent fuel savings (and equivalent reductions in CO2 emissions) at a cost of less than £1000, thus enabling the mass-market uptake of hybrid vehicles in price sensitive vehicle applications.

In addition to the work underway in the KineStor project, Porsche AG recently confirmed a partnership with WHP which is in the advanced stages of integrating the flywheel technology in a 911 GT3 R Hybrid as a leading element of the Porsche Intelligent Performance programme.  

 

 QSTP & New Energy Technology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The application and potential of the MLC flywheel technology beyond the hybrid car market led to Williams’ investment in a new technology and R&D centre based at the Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) in Doha. The Williams Technical Centre (WTC) is charged with developing a larger version of the MLC flywheel which is capable of storing more energy and handling greater power. The market for such technology is expected to grow rapidly in several areas:-

Mass-transit – braking of trains approaching stations wastes energy which can be captured and stored in the flywheel and used for future acceleration events. In addition, where the costs of continuous electrification are high, flywheels can provide temporary supply of energy for motive power more cost-effectively. These solutions have wide applicability for trains, buses, trams and light rail.

Hybrid trains with a capacity for energy storage can also provide a cheaper and more viable solution for discontinuous rail electrification programmes. One of the major problems in moving rail networks away from dependency on diesel power is the cost of electrification of remote or physically challenging areas such as tunnels and cuttings. Hybrid trains store sufficient energy on-board to self-propel through these sections of railway, thereby reducing the costs of moving to electric power across an entire network.

EPS – Electric Power Stabilisation using flywheels allows fluctuations in electricity supply from grids to be smoothed out. This is a particular need in developing economies where increasing numbers of people and businesses are tied to electricity supply from unstable grids. For electricity customers beyond the reach of grids flywheels can also reduce fluctuations in the power generated from intermittent renewable generation sources such as wind turbines.

Smoothing is also an important consideration for high-dependency power applications, such as data centres and hospitals, where loss of power could threaten business viability or risk life. In these applications, flywheels provide excellent technical solutions as they excel when short, frequent bursts of intense power are required and in this way have advantages over comparable chemical battery technology, namely:-

 

 

• Flywheels have smaller physical dimensions for the power they can accept or supply

• Flywheels have a reduced environmental impact as batteries contain various volatile and toxic compounds

• Flywheels are anticipated to require less maintenance by a factor of up to six times

• Flywheels have faster discharge and recharge times, making them more appropriate for applications needing repeat charge-discharge cycles such as a frequently stopping train
• Flywheels have a longer projected life-span of 15 – 20 years which is in the order of four times the life of a comparable battery

Based on extensive market analysis, it is estimated that the future potential market for MLC flywheel technology is in the order of US$ 250m in the next three years.

 

2. Carbon Disclosure

Williams F1 has also become a participant inthe Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Since its formation in 2000, CDP has become the recognised standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process, providing primary climate change data from 3,700 of the world’s largest corporations. Williams made its first disclosure to the CDP in 2009 and is now actively working to improve its measurement and reporting of its carbon footprint,and also to develop programmes to reduce its carbon impact. No other sports team, league or governing body has disclosed its carbon footprint and Williams F1 is the first ‘sports and entertainment’ company to undergo full disclosure under CDP.

Since 2005, Williams F1 has been monitoring its carbon footprint. In 2008, a group of MBA students from Oxford University’s Said Business School conducted a project to help enhance and refine the existing reporting systems to bring them in line with the most widely used carbon reporting framework, the Green House Gas Protocol. In June 2009, Williams disclosed full details of its carbon footprint under the CDP. This submission was published on the CDP’s website on 21 September 2009, and reveals some surprising information such as the fact that emissions from the team’s race cars account for less than 1% of the company's overal carbon footprint.

No common carbon reporting standards or programmes specific to the sports and entertainment industry currently exist. This makes sport & entertainment benchmarking and sharing of best practice difficult. It also means that companies which engage in sponsorship have no solid mechanism for assessing and comparing the environmental attributes of properties they are considering sponsoring, even though “greenness” may well be an important criterion. The proposed solution is to create a sector-specific Sport and Entertainment CDP (S&E CDP). The S&E CDP will see sports teams,leagues, tournaments, touring musical acts, television shows and feature films all disclosing their carbon footprints under an common reporting framework. This project will address the challenges described above as well as more broadly promote awareness, transparency and responsibility in this high visibility sector. Building on its disclosure under the existing CDP framework, Williams F1 aims to take a leading role in driving the creation of the S&E CDP.