Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited (Williams F1) and Kinetic Traction Systems, Inc. (KTSi) have signed a long-term Co-operation Agreement to advance and promote innovative, clean flywheel-based energy storage and recycling systems for mass transit rail and grid applications.

Originally intended for use in the Kinetic Energy Recover Systems of its racing cars, Williams F1's subsidiary, Williams Hybrid Power (WHP) has developed high-performance, lightweight mobile flywheel energy storage systems. These incorporate its patented Magnetic Loaded Composite (MLC) technology which gives the systems their unique high cycling ability and high-power characteristics. WHP's mobile flywheel systems have been successfully applied in applications such as the Porsche 911 GT3 R hybrid.

KTSi's proprietary stationary GTR flywheel systems, which leverage WHP's MLC technology, capture braking energy of trains to increase performance, reduce electrical energy consumption, and lower carbon emissions for metro transit agencies around the globe.

The Co-operation Agreement will see Williams F1 market and support KTSi's GTR flywheel systems in the rail and electrical grid sectors under its own brand in Europe, the Middle East and India. The two companies will work to globally promote composite flywheel technology.

The co-operation will also see further development and enhancements to the GTR undertaken by Williams F1's energy storage team based at the Williams Technology Centre in Qatar. Complementing the GTR and using common technology, the Qatar-based team is currently developing a larger stationary MLC-based flywheel energy storage system that will offer particular energy and power characteristics broadening the range of applications in the rail and electricity grid sectors that can benefit from flywheel energy storage.

Alex Burns, CEO of Williams F1 said, "This co-operation combines Williams F1's capabilities and experience with flywheel design and development with KTSi's technology and experience with stationary systems for the rail and electric grid market. With both companies commercialising flywheel energy storage based on common MLC technology, aligning our engineering, development and marketing makes sense."

"By partnering with Williams F1, we bring together our GTR flywheel technology, manufacturing and customer engineering expertise with their advanced engineering, development and marketing capabilities," said Dick Newark, KTSi CEO. "This creates a depth of experience and organises technical resources to accelerate the deployment of GTR flywheel energy storage systems around the world."

"This agreement will enable both companies to reach more customers quicker than before in order to meet the growing market demand for energy storage solutions," says Chandler Williamson, Vice President of Sales and Chief Marketing Officer at KTSi. "No one else delivers this level of experience in the field of advanced flywheel energy storage systems."