Williams F1 announced earlier this week that they had partnered with Automotive Hybrid Power Limited to join forces with hopes of bringing a new technology into the automobile marketplace.

The companies are both interested in bringing energy recovery systems into the marketplace. Formula One is allowing such technology into the sport next year.

The step Williams is taking with AHP is to develop a flywheel that will capture and store the kinetic energy generated under braking to be used later by the car.

Of course, the immediate benefit to the company with developing this technology would be to the Formula One program, but it hopes to take that F1 experience with the technology and deploy it in the general marketplace.

By combining forces, the two companies should be able to bring it that much quicker to consumers.

"As AHP, we had begun to develop our own advanced flywheel technology for application in vehicles. As Williams Hybrid Power, we will make use of the higher profile and Formula One development program to accelerate development and bring it to market more quickly," Ian Foley, Williams Hybrid Power's Managing Director said.

Patrick Head, Williams F1's Director of Engineering is hopeful that this technology will lead to a reduction in carbon emissions.

"High-energy flywheel technology is a challenging field of engineering. We fully support the FIA’s positive initiative in energy recovery systems which we hope will allow Formula One to make some contribution to the development of an environmentally beneficial technology that could help to reduce the carbon emissions of vehicles," he said.

The FIA has taken a number of steps lately to have its sport develop greener technology for use on the streets.

These Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) are being touted as better than the current hybrid engines on vehicles today. Creators are making the claim that these systems are twice as efficient as a standard hybrid system.

Hybrid cars and KERS cars are still a developing technology. But at least the FIA and F1 car manufacturers are taking steps and spending money to develop this kind of technology.