Comments on: A quantum leap in electrical energy storage

By: Tom Merritt (UK)

Tom Merritt (UK) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:54:45 +0000

Hmmm.. but how many more to get my 1.21 gigawatts to get back in time????

By: Bob Deverell

Bob Deverell — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:28:59 +0000

Doug, you would not connect one supercap to another in a simple circuit. If you did only half the energy could be transferred. The solution is to extract the energy from the source with a voltage/power convertor to feed the second. That way all the energy (minus losses) can be transferred.
Bob Bangkok

By: Doug Danforth

Doug Danforth — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:37:23 +0000

Although I am enthusiastically following the EEStor story there is one point you made that needs correction. Namely,
“You slowly charge up a super capacitor in your home, over night while the electricity is cheap. Then in the morning, you can zap all the power from your home capacitor into your car’s capacitor.” Although this is certainly possible it actually is very inefficient. In fact it is only 33% efficient. This follows form the fact that capacitor charge increases directly with voltage v but the energy stored increases as the square of the voltage v^2. So if you charge you home unit to 2v you will have 2Q units of charge and 4E units of energy. After you have discharged the home unit into your car unit the voltage, v, between the two units will be the same (have come into equilibrium) and the charge in each unit will be Q (total charge conserved). But the energy in each unit will be E for a total of 2E between them. You started with 4E and ended up with 2E. Where did the other 2E go? It was dissipated as heat and radiation (think of an antenna). If you start your home unit again with its voltage at v and crank it up to 2v you put in 3E additional units to get to the 4E value and then after discharge you are back to 1E having transferred 1E to your car. Hence 3E in, 1E out, for only 33% efficiency.

By: Pokeh

Pokeh — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:01:27 +0000

Good post! Just read it before going to bed!

By: David

David — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:59:31 +0000

@EExpert, thank you for that great addition to my post!

By: EExpert

EExpert — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:50:54 +0000

This is a good summary. Below are some additional pieces of information:

1) The two patent inventors are life long inventors and Engineers.

2) EEStor has decided to keep all prototypes away from the public so that no one can start researching how to make similar materials which may evade their patent. The plan is to have a full up running factories and even factory kits for companies that want to make their own EESUs (like GM, Toyota, etc. or even power companies getting into the wind farm business).

3) The price of these 52kW units are expected to be about US$ 3000, which is cheaper than conventional batteries.

4) The EESU contain non-toxic, so if one is damaged or smashed it not like disposing a chemical battery.

5) These EESU are solid state and will not wear out. They will be rated for a million cycles.

6) The can be fully discharged without damage, unlike conventional batteries deep discharges shorten the battery life.

7) A company named Zenn Motor Company from Canada was an early angle investor in EEStor and will have between 3.8% to 7.2% of equity in EEStor. Zenn Motor Company also will have the exclusive rights to license the EESU for any four wheel vehicle weighing less than 1400 kg. Zenn plans on licensing these EESU to all vehicle manufacturers that wants to get into the electric or hybrid business. Zenn is publicly traded on the Canadian TSX exchange.

http://cxa.marketwatch.com/TSX/en/Market/intchart.aspx?symb=ZNN&sid=2747022

By: Nick Hide

Nick Hide — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:51:45 +0000

Zehr interessant! Danke schon, Dave