Activated Charcoal Carbon

Ultra Capacitors to Handle Surges in Powerand Activated Charcoal Carbon

Utilizing power from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power and integrating it with the electrical grid has one major problem which has to be overcome, the handling of sudden surges of power. This can be overcome by building ultracapacitors as an energy storage device. Graphine Energy, an Austin based company has take a lead in this field by developing graphine electrodes. These electrodes are made with the help of scanning electron microscopes.

Ultracapacitors use electrostatic current to store energy as against chemical means used in batteries. This has the advantage of rapid charging and discharging within seconds instead of minutes as taken by batteries. Wear and tear in the electrodes of Ultra capacitors too is less as compared to batteries as there is no chemical reaction.

The present ultracapacitrors, which use activated carbon electrodes, though much faster than the fastest battery have limited power output. That is why they do not match up to batteries and are used mostly in hybrid systems in conjunction with batteries to take on sudden influx of large quantum of energy.

Graphine Energy plans to start development of far higher capacity ultracapacitors using graphine electrodes which are made from sheets of carbon and are just one atom thick. Once developed, these ultracapacitors will be able to handle surges when used in electrical grids.