Cables that Enable Better Batteries
Batteries alone can’t power our future. However, finding a viable battery replacement can prove to be a difficult task. Perhaps the answer is an addition to batteries instead of trying to replace them.
24 Jan, 2023. 2 min read
Cables that enable…kind of cheesy right? But, it’s what we do. We provide an external solution that makes batteries perform better, and we do it with a cable.
Do batteries really need to be better?
Here’s the truth: batteries alone can’t power our future. What they can do and what they should do are not the same. Although they can store energy for long durations (high specific energy) and have a low self-discharge, they have a hard time delivering a lot of energy very quickly (low specific power) and have a relatively short operating life. Charging or discharging at high rates is damaging to batteries, resulting in frequent and costly replacements. The current way around this is to oversize the battery so the system can handle these high charge/discharge rates, but this is expensive and unsustainable for the renewables industry.
If batteries alone can’t do it, then what do we do?
Batteries aren’t the only energy storage technology out there, and it’s time to start bringing the others onto the playing field. One of these other technologies is supercapacitors. Supercapacitors have a long operating life (upwards of one million cycles) and deliver a lot of energy very quickly (high specific power), making them the perfect solution for applications that require bursts of high power. However, supercapacitors lack the high specific energy and low self-discharge rate that batteries have, making it difficult to replace batteries with supercapacitors in some applications.
But what if what we’re looking for isn’t necessarily a replacement but an addition? The ideal energy storage system would utilize multiple technologies to get the best of both (or all) worlds, creating a hybrid energy storage system. It’s easier said than done, however. Combining multiple technologies does not come without tradeoffs. Most applications are limited in physical space, forcing designers to sacrifice specific energy for specific power or vice versa. This tradeoff typically discourages the usage of hybrid systems, but what if something on the market could mitigate these tradeoffs?
Capacitech’s power storing cables are the answer
Capacitech’s cables leverage the characteristics of supercapacitors to enhance energy-dense technologies like batteries and fuel cells without the tradeoffs that typically come with hybrid energy storage systems. We hide supercapacitor technologies in the wiring infrastructure, keeping areas aesthetically pleasing and allowing customers to utilize traditionally unused space for energy storage. As a supercapacitor would, our cables provide peak power support, helping batteries start loads they may not have been able to do on their own.
Electronics designed to manage the power flow through the system are pre-integrated into the cables, allowing the battery and our cable to pass the work off to one another during situations such as power surges or periods of steady-state operation. These electronics, paired with our cable being battery and inverter agnostic, enable a drop-in and easy installation. Simple installations allow customers to enhance pre-existing battery systems without costly redesigns, reducing one-time and ongoing operating expenses.
Capacitech bridges the gap between energy storage technologies, enhancing and enabling hybrid systems. Our cables provide the advantages of supercapacitors to create the ideal energy storage system, all while mitigating the tradeoffs typical of them.