A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy

Rotational energy

The rotational energy or angular kinetic energy is the kinetic energy due to the rotation of an object and is part of its total kinetic energy...

. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia

Moment of inertia

In classical mechanics, moment of inertia, also called mass moment of inertia, rotational inertia, polar moment of inertia of mass, or the angular mass, is a measure of an object's resistance to changes to its rotation. It is the inertia of a rotating body with respect to its rotation...

, and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed

Rotational speed

Rotational speed tells how many complete rotations there are per time unit. It is therefore a cyclic frequency, measured in hertz in the SI System...

. Energy is transferred to a flywheel by applying torque

Torque

Torque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....

 to it, thereby causing its rotational speed, and hence its stored energy, to increase. Conversely, a flywheel releases stored energy by applying torque to a mechanical load, which results in decreased rotational speed.

Flywheels have three predominant uses:

• They provide continuous energy when the energy source is not continuous.