Available Technolgies: Energy Storage for Hybrids

June 5, 2005 – Vol.10 No.11

AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES: ENERGY STORAGE FOR HYBRIDS.

Hybrid vehicles are here to stay. Hopefully they’ll evolve into next-generaton hybrids, plug-in hybrids that get better than 100 miles per gallon on gasoline.

The key technology for hybrids is the energy storage device needed to capture and store energy used for hill climbing and acceleration. For now, this device is a pack of batteries. But ultra-capacitors already available might take their place.

Maxwell Technologies has developed and is now selling its next generation BOOSTCAP ultracapacitors. More energy can be stored in each new device than in the previous version.

A big advantage of ultracapacitors might be their long life. A million charge/discharge cycles are possible, says the company. A bank of ultracapacitors could last as long as the vehicle.

(A Prius on the road long enough will need its battery pack replaced - at great expense.)

The new products were developed under the FreedomCAR initiative created in 2002 by the Bush Administration to promote new technologies to reduce the nation’s dependence on oil. FreedomCAR made a splash when it was first announced but it is rarely mentioned now. It should be. Visit Maxwell at http://www.maxwell.com/ .