THE BENEFITS OF USING SUPERCAPACITORS FOR GRID STORAGE ON RENEWABLE PRODUCTION PLANTS

What are Supercapacitors?

Supercapacitors are high-capacity capacitors that have a much higher capacitance than other types of capacitors and much lower voltage limits. This means that they charge much faster than traditional lithium-ion batteries, and they can store much more energy than electrolytic capacitors. Lithium-ion batteries traditionally have a life span of between 500 and 10,000 cycles, Supercapacitors for comparison have a lifespan from 100,000 to a million cycles.

Supercapacitors are better suited for grid storage than traditional lithium ion batteries, although they can only store a 1/4 of the energy of a lithium ion battery by weight,  Supercapacitors more than make up for that with the speed of charge, having a charging time 1000 times faster than a similar capacity battery, with some small power Supercapacitors already having the capability to charge instantly, Supercapacitors can also operate within a much broader effective operating temperature from -40 to +150F.

Supercapacitors are perfectly suited for any application that require frequent charge and discharge cycles, extreme operating temperatures, or rapid discharge of high amounts of energy, making them perfectly designed for use in renewable energy production. Have you ever had someone ask you why a windfarm is stopped even though the wind speed is extremely favourable? It is very likely that the wind farm is stopped as it is being curtailed by grid providers as the energy supply meets the current demand on the grid.

In the aforementioned circumstance the renewable asset has to cease production until the supply lessens or demand increases, this is extremely disappointing as the production of a renewable asset is hindered not meeting its full capability, often stopping and starting production, this repetitive stopping and starting along with increases and decreases in wind speeds often leads much higher energy losses than required by grid curtailment, not to mention the increase in stress on power electronics.

This problem can be much more effectively mitigated by installing Supercapacitors banks on your renewable plant rather than the traditional lithium ion storage banks, renewable assets require frequent charge and discharge cycles as well as rapid discharge of large amounts of energy due to the unpredictability of grid demand making Supercapacitors the more effective choice for use on renewable assets, additionally Supercapacitors can be made from much more readily available materials than the traditional lithium ion battery making them cheaper and easier to manufacture, not to mention the spiralling environmental cost of lithium batteries. As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required could become a major issue in its own right, making Supercapacitors a much more sustainable option for use in grid storage than lithium.