Exploration on the application of a new type of superconducting energy storage for regenerative braking in urban rail transit

Abstract

Regenerative braking technology has become increasingly attractive due to its ability to recover and reuse the energy that would otherwise be lost. In recent years, a new superconducting energy storage technology is proposed and it has been proved experimentally and analytically that the technology has promising application potential in urban rail transit for regenerative braking. However, a comprehensive assessment of the new technology has not been conducted up to date. In this paper, the currently available energy storage technologies for regenerative braking, such as batteries, supercapacitors, flywheels, and SMES are introduced along with the new superconducting energy storage technology. Comparative studies between the existing technologies and the new one are conducted in terms of energy density, energy conversion efficiency, energy storage duration, capital cost and environmental impact. It is concluded that a regenerative braking system with the new superconducting energy storage has very high cycle efficiency and is superior to the existing energy storage systems. It has the potential to revolutionize the regenerative braking technology and to develop more efficient and sustainable urban rail transportation systems.