Exciting news for solar and batteries (1 Viewer)

Feb 27, 2011
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Scientists have developed a really cheap and fast method of producing super capacitors using graphene and a consumer grade lightscribe DVD laser.

super capacitors store energy like a battery but don't contain any of the harmful chemicals and most importantly charge almost instantly in comparison to a battery.

The way these guys do it you could coat the back of a solar panel with multiple layers of these super capacitors adding very little weight but adding huge storage potential directly to the panels.
My mind is running away with ideas on this one :thumb:

I really hope they can commercialise it quickly.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-researchers-develop-new-technique-243553.aspx

Watch the linked video.
 

Jaws

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Very very exciting stuff..
Sadly, being a sceptic, I suspect the technology will not be commercially available at a reasonable cost for more years than I am likely to be around...........

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hilldweller

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Scientists have developed a really cheap and fast method of producing super capacitors

He did keep using the word "micro" rather a lot and I didn't spot any numbers.

That seems to me to be a long way from the amps needed as a power storage medium.

There have been other graphite nanotube battery announcements recently.

There is hope.
 
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Theres a sentence or two telling you how to do it at home! Let us know how you get on

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Wildman

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there are already handheld powertools on the market using capacitors rather than batteries so not that far away, only a matter of scale.
 
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He did keep using the word "micro" rather a lot and I didn't spot any numbers.

That seems to me to be a long way from the amps needed as a power storage medium.

There have been other graphite nanotube battery announcements recently.

There is hope.

The problem is nanotube is seriously expensive.

The micro in the video is explained by the size of the interlocking fingers not the size of the charge or the completed device. He demonstrated one lighting a bulb and "claimed" it kept it lit for 5 minutes.

Because these are so thin they could be mount one on top of the other as well as side by side. 3D packaging is also possible so it would scale up really well.

I agree though that it would have been nice to have some figures on energy density and a comparison to current tech...

The do mention using it as storage capacity for solar panels on houses so it must scale.
 

hilldweller

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They do mention using it as storage capacity for solar panels on houses so it must scale.

Fingers crossed. Electricity storage is the one Big Thing humans lack big time.

For instance, Dinorwig, how absurd is that that, build a lake at the top of a mountain, hollow out the mountain and fill it with pumps and turbines, pump water to fill the lake then drain it when power needed. A great place to visit. Good technology on a Victorian level. But all we need is A Big Battery.

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Jan 27, 2013
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Super capacitors

flux_capacitor_6_complete_lit2.jpg


While they may need 1.21 jigawatts to operate they must be lighter than the Williams hybrid power flywheel...
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Traveller_HA5_3DOM

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Looks a bit like someone getting his April Fools joke set up 4 or 5 weeks early.
quote " We used a consumer-grade LightScribe DVD burner to produce graphene micro-supercapacitors over large areas at a fraction of the cost of traditional devices."
Just when we thought our DVD burners were past their sell by date.
Something in my memory tells me if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Still I do hope I'm wrong about this and it is the exception.
 

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