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by lolc 2167 days ago
Not that I know much about flywheel engineering. But machines tend to become more efficient the bigger you build them.

With flywheels, I don't see the bearings as difficult. I mean it's sure a challenge to keep a few tons afloat, but nothing unsolved. I'd assume (but don't know) that you can scale magnetic bearings a few orders of magnitude with their properties staying the same.

On the other hand, the faster you spin flywheels, the more energy they store. And here comes the limitation: The material they're made of has to sustain all tearing force. So at some point you'll add mass instead of spinning faster.