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In recent decades, renewable energy efforts in Liechtenstein have also branched out into solar energy production. Most solar energy is generated by photovoltaic arrays mounted on buildings (usually roofing), rather than dedicated solar power stations.
Energy production from renewables consisted of 27,71 % hydropower production (8,91 % imported and 18,80 % domestic), as well as 4,76 % produced domestically from solar energy. Liechtenstein's overall energy production from renewables consisted of 8,91 % imports and of 23,56 % domestic, non-export production.
Liechtenstein has used hydroelectric power stations since the 1920s as its primary source of domestic energy production. By 2018, the country had 12 hydroelectric power stations in operation (4 conventional/pumped-storage and 8 fresh water power stations). Hydroelectric power production accounted for roughly 18 - 19% of domestic needs.
Lawena Power Station is the oldest in the country, opened in 1927. The power station underwent reconstructions in 1946 and 1987. Today, it also includes a small museum on the history of electricity production in Liechtenstein. Samina Power Station, currently the largest of the domestic power stations, has been operational since December 1949.
This mismatch between supply and demand necessitates effective energy storage solutions. While batteries have been the traditional method, flywheel energy storage systems (FESS) are emerging as an innovative and potentially superior alternative, particularly in applications like time-shifting solar power.
Flywheel energy storage is mostly used in hybrid systems that complement solar and wind energy by enhancing their stability and balancing the grid frequency because of their quicker response times or with high-energy density storage solutions like Li-ion batteries .
VYCON’s VDC® flywheel energy storage solutions significantly improve critical system uptime and eliminates the environmental hazards, costs and continual maintenance associated with lead-acid based batteries
While many papers compare different ESS technologies, only a few research [152,153] studies design and control flywheel-based hybrid energy storage systems. Recently, Zhang et al. present a hybrid energy storage system based on compressed air energy storage and FESS.
