ARES are a company that are committed to providing energy storage technology on a wide scale and have just been given approval by the Bureau of Land Management to launch a new project called ARES. ARES stands for Advanced Rail Energy Storage, and their purpose is to assist the electric grid and compensate in times of need when supplies are running low, and store excess supplies when required.
The way in which ARES approach the issue of balancing energy supplies is different to that of the Elon Musk peddles, pumped hydroelectric facilities or moving compressed air underneath the ground. Their method involves taking over 106 acres of Nevada and running a low-cost power to drive train to generate and store electricity as and when required. It will work when the local utility has excess electricity. When this occurs the electric motor fires up the train, and it steams up the 2,000-foot hill ahead of it. When there is a deficit in electricity, the train bolts back down the hill and generates the electricity needed via braking.
READ ALSO: Republicans Are Changing Their Politics About Global Warming and Clean Energy
Although the whole project is based on energy saving, it is still a very expensive task to complete, with the new energy storage system costing a whopping $55 million. As with all new major projects, ARES do have a mountain ahead of them in ensuring they can achieve all they have set out to do, but once they do, there will be no stopping them!