Evaluation of Mechanical Energy Storage Technologies in the Context of a Fuzzy Environment

Abstract

Clean energy sources are becoming increasingly important as traditional energy sources are rapidly depleted around the world. The energy produced must be stored to make this orientation more meaningful. One of the very different storage technologies used is mechanical energy storage. Mechanical energy makes up a large percentage of the energy storage capacity in the world. Keeping track of current mechanical energy storage technology developments is a key task for policymakers. From this point of view, it is necessary to have an evaluation of different mechanical energy storage techniques under certain criteria and in consideration of the opinions of decision makers. Therefore, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model is proposed. In the case study, 3 different mechanical energy storage techniques, pumped hydro, compressed air, and flywheel energy storage alternatives were evaluated with the fuzzy grey relation analysis for common criteria, power capacity, lifetime, energy density, efficiency, response time of these alternatives. Growing use of energy storage in every aspect of life, from electric vehicles to mobile applications, from smart buildings to cities, makes these studies relevant. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.