WILLIAMS HYBRID POWER LAUNCHED
Venture to propel Formula One KERS solution and new environmental
technologies Oxford, UK, 28 April 2008. Williams F1 today
announced that it has acquired a minority shareholding in
Automotive Hybrid Power Limited, a company developing high-energy
composite flywheels for use in energy recovery systems. AHP
has relocated from Norwich to Williams’ headquarters
outside Oxford, UK and has been renamed Williams Hybrid Power
Limited.
Williams Hybrid Power Limited is developing a flywheel for
potential use as the energy storage element of Williams’
kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS), a technology that
will be allowed by regulation in Formula One next year. This
technology stores kinetic energy generated under braking that
would otherwise be dissipated. Williams is exploring a number
of energy storage options. The Williams Hybrid Power system
is based on a flywheel rotating at speeds of up to 100,000rpm
that would capture this energy for later release. The competitive
rigour of Formula One requires quickly deployable solutions
to technical problems, as well as ensuring any such solutions
are lightweight, robust and high performance. Williams Hybrid
Power hopes to build on the Formula One experience to transfer
its technology to other types of vehicle.
Patrick Head, Williams F1’s Director of Engineering,
said, “High-energy flywheel technology is a challenging
field of engineering. We fully support the FIA’s positive
initiative in energy recovery systems which we hope will allow
Formula One to make some contribution to the development of
an environmentally beneficial technology that could help to
reduce the carbon emissions of vehicles.”
Ian Foley, Williams Hybrid Power’s Managing Director
said, “As AHP, we had begun to develop our own advanced
flywheel technology for application in vehicles. As Williams
Hybrid Power, we will make use of the higher profile and Formula
One development programme to accelerate development and bring
it to market more quickly.”
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