The One Solution to Renewable Energy’s Fatal Flaw
By Jim Nelson
February 12, 2008
“The foundation is being laid for the emergence of both wind and solar cells as cornerstones of the new energy economy.”
— Lester A. Brown, Michael Renner and Brian Halweil, Vital Signs 1999
There is no doubt about it. The growth of renewable energies over the past decade is something rarely seen.
Take wind energy for instance…
The wind energy industry added 20 gigawatts of capacity last year. That’s 31% more than the year before and 176% more than just five years ago. Europe already proved that this growth is steady, and both China and the U.S are finally jumping on board. Not even the NIMBY’s can stop it.
(NIMBY — meaning “Not in My Backyard” — refers to those who reject projects around them even if it benefits them. NIMBY-ism is the main reason why certain proposals for wind farms are rejected.)
Solar power has also presented amazing opportunities. The sale of solar cells increased upwards of 40% last year alone. It’s even made investors big money in the stock market. One of the biggest winners last year was a solar company named First Solar, Inc. If you would have sank just $1,000 into this company at the beginning of 2007, you would’ve walked away with $8,854:
But all of this is worthless…
Why the “Energy Time Gap” Has Rendered Renewables Useless
There is only a certain amount of time during the day when windmills can produce energy — their “capacity factor.” The average capacity factor for wind power is about 30%. The rest of the time, these windmills sit like giant statues waiting for the next gust of wind. During that period — the “energy time gap” — no new electricity is going onto the power grids.
The same goes for solar power…
The sun doesn’t shine 100% of the time. Even in the vast deserts of Southwest U.S., in the peak of summer, the sun is only up about 14 hours a day. When it is up, there are problems with cloud coverage. The average capacity factor for solar power is around 25%.
So up until now, these renewable energies have been useless…
Without the ability to store the electricity that these renewables are producing, there’s no reason to build new wind farms, solar-power plants or any other “green” electricity producers.
Until now, batteries were the only choice.
Batteries offer great energy storage, but take too long to charge. It takes anywhere from one to ten hours to charge batteries. Unfortunately, with a capacity factor for renewables under 30%, we don’t have that kind of time to wait for batteries to charge.
Today, we found the one solution for the energy problems of tomorrow, and one company with the technology that will solve renewable energy’s fatal flaw…
The Instant Energy Solution to the Big Green Problem
By using a special type of device called a supercapacitor, we have the solution to the fatal “energy time gap.”
Batteries are chemical devices that use mass transfers over a certain period of time. Supercapacitors store ions, which can be stored and released very quickly. It’s like instant energy.
But, that’s not to say that it has to be one or the other. In fact, the two work very well together. Supercapacitors bring fast storage and release of instant power — which is crucial — and batteries use this to advance their storage and long-lasting energy release capabilities.
Changing batteries every few years at wind farms and solar plants, let alone hundreds of other battery-powered locations, becomes quite expensive and time-consuming. These supercapacitors last between 1,000 and 10,000 times as long. In fact, there is a company already manufacturing and selling these products for use in windmills.
But, supercapacitors’ advantages don’t stop here…
How Wasted Energy Introduces Supercapacitors to Hundreds of Industries
When a car brakes, or a crane drops, energy is released. And until now, that energy isn’t recaptured. It’s wasted. Supercapacitors can actually capture that energy and use it again for other purposes. Using the crane example for a minute…
When a crane drops its massive arms to pick something up or unload something, there is a large amount of natural energy (gravity) released. Batteries cannot charge in the time that the crane is dropping, but supercapacitors can. That energy is then stored in the supercapacitor. When the crane needs raised up again, that stored energy is used. Hundreds of different industries can apply this principle to their own energy needs.
Take transportation for instance…
Supercapacitors can collect energy as a vehicle brakes, then release it when the vehicle accelerates, giving a nice boost of energy without any emissions. Every single time someone pulls up to a stop sign or red light the vehicle wastes energy. That energy can save massive amounts of gasoline every second of the day, all over the world. And, both countries and manufacturers are starting to pay attention…
Contract’s Are Starting to Roll in for This Revolutionary Technology
As we’ve written before, China has an enormous pollution problem. With the 2008 Beijing Olympics coming up, the country is desperately trying to turn its public transportation “green.” So, the time is right for one company to cash in.
This company recently declared two contracts with Chinese hybrid bus makers for the use of the company’s supercapacitor technology. With the rush to have it done by the opening ceremony in August, we should see a rush to buy up as many of these as possible between now and then.
The company is also working with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) here in the United States. The U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium has already arranged deals with the company for use of its patented supercapacitors, in combination with Lithium-Ion batteries, in next-generation hybrids.
In fact, news has already started to show up in this field. In January this year, the company announced that one of the leading automotive electronics suppliers has designed a was to use its supercapacitors in a major automaker’s electrical system, and it will go into full-scale production in the second half of next year.
The role of supercapacitors in the transportation industry is limitless, let alone renewable energies and industrial applications. It’s certainly something to keep on eye out for…
Sincerely,
Jim Nelson
By John Timmer | Published: September 04, 2007 - 09:41PM CT
The batteries we rely on for everything from our cars to our cell phones use a chemical reaction to store and release an electrical charge. The chemicals involved force a large number of tradeoffs in terms of practical considerations, such as weight, toxicity, heat, and the slow charging process. News is filtering out that a small startup company in Texas has made a breakthrough in charge storage that relies on a completely different technology: capacitors. Details are scarce, but a company that has licensed the technology suggests that it's ready for large-scale production.
For those of you who don't remember high school physics, a capacitor stores charge by arranging two metal plates in parallel. Placing a negative charge in one of the plates will repel electrons from its opposite; this charge difference will be maintained as long as the two plates remain electrically isolated and can be harnessed to produce a useful electric current. A key advantage of capacitors is that they can store charge just as quickly as it's supplied—the long charge times needed by chemical batteries are simply unnecessary. With no chemical reactions involved, capacitors should also have an indefinite life span.
These features may lead you to wonder why everything isn't running on capacitors. The primary limit to the amount of electrical charge that can be stored in a capacitor is the amount of insulation between the plates, which prevents a current from jumping directly between them. Existing insulators simply aren't good enough to support a charge density comparable to chemical batteries. In short, capacitors with a sufficient charge capacity take up far too much space.
The Texas company behind the apparent breakthrough, EEStor, is primarily notable for two things: its secrecy (it doesn't even have a web site to link to) and a patent application that describes a process for manufacturing a well-insulated capacitor. It apparently relies on barium titanate (BaTiO3) as an insulator, something that's been tried in the academic world. But line eight of the patent application suggests that the charge storage is much higher than anything achieved in an academic lab: 52 kilowatt-hours in a 2,000 cubic inch capacitor array. A rough conversion calculation suggests that this is over 10 times the power density of standard lead-acid batteries.
Is this sort of breakthrough realistic? In the absence of an actual product, it's easy to dismiss patent claims as hyperbole. But the Associated Press is reporting that the ZENN Motor Company, which makes compact electric cars, plans to start using the capacitors before the year is out. The company has invested in EEStar in return for production goals being met and so is in a position to know how realistic its claims are. EEStor is also led by personnel from IBM, which has a strong materials science research presence and has attracted the backing of a tech-savvy investment capital firm. Still, the AP report quotes a number of researchers in the field as being extremely skeptical. One noted that the charge density claims of the patent would represent a 400-fold improvement over existing technology.
Given ZENN Motor's plans, we shouldn't have long to wait before finding out how realistic the patent's statements are. If EEStor's claims pan out, the resulting cars could be charged as quickly and conveniently as filling a gas tank. Until that product is released, however, the skeptics have ample reason to question these claims.
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