Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the all-aboard dept.

A Californian company proposes using weighted electrically-driven rail vehicles on inclines to store energy. At times when the capacity of electricity supply exceeds demand the vehicles would be driven up inclined tracks, and when demand exceeds generation they are allowed to run down, generating electricity as they fall.

This link includes a video that shows a prototype vehicle (which appears to be built on a conventional locomotive chassis), an interview with a promoter, and an animation of a "farm" of these devices. There is a shortage of hard data, such as how much energy could be stored, for how long, and how steep the tracks are, etc., but a quick calculation shows that some thousands of these vehicles would be required for them to be useful. The control panel for this prototype has a power dial that appears to go up to only 20 kW. The promoter in the interview focuses instead on how the construction material can be recycled at end of life.

Motherboard story from 2016 when Advanced Rail Energy Storage (ARES) got approval to build a 50 MW facility in Nevada.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:45PM (1 child)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:45PM (#702005)

    by xorsyst (1372) Neutral on Tuesday July 03, @11:40AM

    Well Sheeeeiiiiiiii....

    Great minds thinking alike and all that.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by qzm on Tuesday July 03 2018, @08:55PM

    by qzm (3260) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @08:55PM (#702165)

    Because building a large watertight containment area is free.. Nice to know.
    Just perhaps different situations call for different solutions?
    Although this one is poorly designed. You would use more dumb weight cars.
    And to the people comparing scale to dams.. This is competition to a tesla battery farm, not the hoover dam. Sigh.
    Still.. Badly designed