Advanced Rail Energy Storage (ARES)
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Advanced Rail Energy Storage ARES Nevada About ARES Advanced Rail Energy Storage, LLC (ARES) is a Washington State LLC and was founded in 2010. It is headquartered in Santa Barbara and has multiple offices in the Southern California area. In addition to these corporate offices, ARES has a research center in Tehachapi, California and is developing a second facility in Moorpark, California. ARES has developed and patented a breakthrough gravitational energy storage system that is based upon tried and true, state-of-the-art railroad technology. ARES systems: Produce no emissions and require no fossil fuels. Requires no dams, and no water like Pumped Storage Hydro. Produce no hazardous emissions. Do not require technological advances to be commercially viable. Can be decommissioned quickly and cleanly, leaving no lasting impact on the environment. Do not require the use of environmentally sensitive materials. For these reasons can be permitted and constructed quickly. How ARES Stores Energy You might remember from High School Physics that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it transforms from one form to another. Energy can be stored in many forms such as chemical energy (batteries), thermal energy (heat), kinetic energy (flywheels), and potential energy (weights of a clock). This last one is the way ARES works and it is called Gravitational Potential Energy Storage. The figures below show how the process works. In figure 1, when there is an excess of power on the electric grid electricity is used to turn a motor lifting a heavy weight and charging the device. Figure 2 shows that the weight has been raised to its maximum elevation and the device is fully charged. In figure 3 the electricity is regenerated as the weight is lowered turning the motor backwards and acting as a generator Gravity powered electricity storage is not new. Pumped-storage hydroelectric plants, which raise water from one reservoir to another, have been providing utility-scale energy storage since the 19th century. Currently there are more than 100,000 megawatts (MW) of pumped-storage hydroelectric plants operating worldwide -- but with restrictions on the use of water, dam construction and other environmental concerns it is becoming increasingly difficult to construct new pumped-storage facilities. This is occurring at a time when the need for energy storage is skyrocketing due to the increased reliance on carbon free intermittent renewable energy supplies such as wind and solar. ARES represents a breakthrough gravity-based energy storage technology that will permit the global electric grid to more effectively, reliably and cleanly assimilate renewable energy while providing significant stability to the electrical grid. ARES has combined proven electric railroad technology with modern power electronics to carry its heavy weights up a steep slope. You have probably heard the claim that a train can move 1 ton of cargo 436 miles on a single gallon of gas; ARES applies this same economy of operation to store energy more efficiently and economically than competing large-scale energy storage technologies. It is an internationally- patented system that has very low technology risk, a rapidly growing market with limited competition and expected high returns to investors. ARES’ Technologies ARES has two patented technologies that can be implemented to store electricity, a traction drive system that uses electric locomotives to carry weights up grades that are less than 10% (6 degrees) and its Ridgeline© funicular cable drive technology that can operate on slopes up to 50% (25 degrees). The choice of which technology to use is dependent upon the size of the desired system and the availability of sites in the area. Traction Drive An ARES traction drive facility has two storage yards, a lower and an upper one where its weights are stored. The system is charged by bringing the weights from the lower to the upper yard and later discharged in the reverse order. A network of tracks allows electric Fig. 4 shuttles to roll under the rows of weights for pickup and drop-off in the storage yards. In a continuous flow of shuttle-trains, weights are loaded, figure 4, and transported to the other yard via a delivery track where they are dropped off. The empty train is then free and returns to retrieve its next set of weights. Once all of the weights have been transported the task of charging or discharging has been completed. The power of the system is determined by the number of trains operating at a given time and the speed of those trains. The length of time it takes to charge or discharge the system can be varied by the number of weights in the facility. Following are the specifications of a 670 MW ARES energy storage system: • Estimated capital costs $1,350kW / $168/kw-hr • 8 hours discharge at full output • 5,344 Mw-hr discharge capacity • 2 rail storage yards @ 3000’ elevation differential • 5 interconnecting tracks between yards • Track grade of 7.5%; 8 miles in length • 140 4-car shuttle units • 11,400 concrete weights weighing 234 tons each Fig. 5 Scalability 100 – 3,000 MW Storage Duration 2 – 24 hours Response Time (0 to 100% rated power) 5 Seconds Charging; 25 Seconds Discharging Round-Trip Efficiency (power in to power out) Up to 78% Time from Full Charge to Full Discharge 34 seconds Standby Storage Losses None VAR Support Capacity (Reactive Power) 25 – 125% of rated power System Life 40 years + Ridgeline© Technology ARES traction drive technology has siting and scaling limitations in some regions of the country due to a) topography limitations outside of the mountainous regions of the United States and b) smaller installations (below 100MW) that still requiring a large length of right-of-way for a small amount of power. In order to Fig. 6 eliminate these limitations and be responsive to utility storage requirements, ARES has developed a technology that is more widely deployable on smaller elevation differential sites with steeper slopes. ARES was able to accomplish this improvement by replacing the traction drive locomotive with a highly efficient ground mounted winch drive system. This modification allowed ARES to eliminate the need for onboard vehicle motive power, the associated reliance on an overhead electric catenary system to feed the locomotives and the requirement for elevation differentials in excess of 1,500’. ARES refers to its new gravity power energy storage system design as the ARES Ridgeline© technology. The ARES Ridgeline Power Module design results in several unique advantages: Site Availability -- Being able to operate efficiently on elevation differentials as low as 800’ and grades from 20 to 50%, ARES is able to site cable drive systems on a wide variety of locations that would otherwise be unsuitable for gravity power applications. Efficiency – By employing an interconnected single wound winch system, cable drum layering is eliminated and cable life is extended to life of project, greatly reducing project maintenance and cable friction. By mechanically connecting the uphill and downhill shuttle- units on adjacent tracks their weights counterbalance one another -- greatly reducing power loss from the empty vehicles. An overall round-trip efficiency of 80% is attained with this design. High Ramp Rate – The high grade of the funicular track provides a greater mass rise over unit time, allowing for extremely low shuttle-unit vehicle speeds (5mph). This slow operational speed translates directly into a short time period to reach full power production – see attached Performance Statistics below. An ARES Ridgeline storage system is made up of a number of individual Ridgeline modules. In this manner, the system can effectively be varied in size from 10 to several hundred MW power and the output can be finitely controlled to perform ancillary services. Scalability 100 – 3,000 MW Storage Duration 2 – 10 hours Response Time (0 to 100% rated power) 2 Seconds Charging; 5 Seconds Discharging Round-Trip Efficiency Over 80% Time from Full Charge to Full Discharge 7 seconds Standby Storage Losses None VAR Support Capacity (Voltage support) 25 – 125% of rated power System Life 40 years + Ancillary Service Operation Because of its flexibility, ARES not only can store energy for use at a later time but also provide a wide range of what are referred to as “ancillary services,” which enable the grid to adjust to momentary changes in demand, stabilize voltage and provide emergency capability to restart generators following catastrophic failures. There is an active market and need for ancillary services in the US. ARES systems can provide grid-scale ancillary services, including Regulation Up, Regulation Down, (figure 7) Spin, Non-Spin, Replacement Reserves, VAR Support, Black Start and Grid Inertia, that balance the supply and demand of electricity on the grid. The ARES fast response technology bridges the power gap between battery and flywheel installations and large pumped-storage hydro – at a lower life-cycle cost than batteries, a higher energy-to-power ratio than flywheels and a greater efficiency and far faster ramp-rate than pumped-storage. In the US, ancillary services are sold into both real-time and day-ahead markets. These services are generally operated by Independent System Operators (ISO) or Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO) under federal jurisdiction. ARES technologies can be configured as strictly an ancillary service facility that comprises a single track carrying a number of loaded trains. When fully discharged the trains are all at the bottom of the track and when fully charged the trains have traveled to the top of the track. The duration of such a system is limited to the time it takes to travel the length of the track, typically 15 to 30 minutes. Fig. 7 ARES Compared to other Storage Technologies ARES bridges the gap between large scale technologies like Pumped Hydro and Compressed Air storage and community based ARES systems such as batteries.