Graphene Supercapacitors - Getting Ready for Electric Vehicle Energy Storage

Source: What Is That Whistling Sound

From MIT Technology Review:

Conventional batteries take so long to charge that they cannot efficiently store braking energy. Graphene supercapacitors store almost as much but charge in just 16 seconds.

Electric vehicles are coming, ready or not. And one of the enabling technologies making them more driver friendly is the humble battery, particularly lithium-ion versions that can store enough energy to give these cars a reasonable range for city driving.

Of course, car makers are always searching for ways to improve the efficiency, and therefore the range, of these vehicles. And one way to do this is to recover and reuse the energy that would normally be wasted when the brakes slow down a vehicle.

There is a problem doing this with conventional batteries, however. Braking occurs over time scales measured in seconds, but that’s much too fast for batteries, which generally take many hours to charge. So car makers have to find other ways to store this energy.  

One of the more promising is to use supercapacitors, because they can charge quickly and then discharge the energy just as fast. Indeed, many car makers are experimenting with just this technology.

My view:

This could be revolutionary technology that eventually impacts big utility companies and even conventional internal combustion transportation.

Imagine “charging stations” for electric vehicles instead of gas stations, that charge their supercapacitors (rather than batteries).  If a vehicle doesn’t take long to “refill” will the public care if it is gasoline powered or electrically powered?

There is enormous potential in the company I have discussed these past few posts.

Disclosure – I do hold a position in Sunvault Energy.