Green Options » ultracapacitors

Texas Engineers: We Might Double Renewable Energy Storage Capacities

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:42:25 +0000

Researchers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin say they might have found an improved way to store energy that could make wind and solar power installations wildly more efficient.

Using a one-atom thick, carbon-based material known as graphene, the research team says it has already matched the energy storage capacities of today’s ultracapacitors. Eventually, their calculations show, graphene sheets could store twice as much energy as a standard ultracapacitor.

We currently have two main ways to store electrical energy: in batteries and in ultracapacitors. Finding an effective way to store large amounts of energy is critical for making the most of renewable energy sources like sun and wind, which deliver variable — rather than constant and steady — amounts of energy.

Will Plug-In Hybrids Become the Standard?

Max Lindberg — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:54:24 +0000

Farmers are planting corn and soybeans like crazy, turning food crops into ethanol and biodiesel. Scientists are squeezing oil out of algae while others are trying to coax hydrogen into a fuel that is easy to produce and safe to use. Still other developers are touting the battery-operated electric car, and one company is building a car that runs on compressed air.

Which system will survive? Or will we have a mixture of E85’s, biodiesel, electric, air and hydrogen fueled vehicles cramming our highways and straining the fuel delivery system infrastructure? Eventually, according to the age-old theory that the fittest shall survive, one method of moving us from point “A” to point “B” will emerge, and some folks are betting on the plug-in hybrid.

150 MPG and Your Toilet

Jennifer Lance — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:52:49 +0000

Analogy of how the ultracapacitors work on the Extreme Hybrid:

“In use, the capacitors function much like the water tank on a toilet. That reservoir lets the toilet get by with a small supply pipe, yet still delivers a large volume at once for flushing.”

Images courtesy of Treehugger and AFS Trinity Power.