Overview of the Section on Mechanical Energy Storage

This chapter provides an overview of the section on mechanical energy storage. While pumped storage is presented in a separate section, this section focuses on the other concepts based on either kinetic or potential energy storage. Despite this common basis, the storage concepts described here form a rather heterogeneous group, in which each technology presents specific challenges and there are major differences in terms of development status and application areas. A classification of mechanical storage concepts is presented, the basic concepts and development status of the various technologies are described, and an overview of the chapters in this section is given.