IMDEA Energy Joins the Outstanding and Strategic Project Advanced Energy Storage Systems (SA2VE)
February 8, 2013
The Project was launched in 2007 by a consortium of research organisations and companies that are leaders in their respective sectors, namely: Acciona Infraestructuras, ADIF, CEDEX, CIEMAT, Corporación Zigor, Elytt Energy, Fundación TEKNIKER, Green Power Technologies, Iberdrola, Iberdrola Distribución Eléctrica, Metro de Madrid and Universidad de Sevilla. It is divided in sub-projects with different applications such as railways transport, buildings, and uninterrupted power supply for large computing systems.
IMDEA Energy collaborates in the design, construction and testing of a module of new generation supercapacitors, made of an ensemble of cells with performance superior to their commercial equivalents, making them to cover the gap between supercapacitors and batteries. An additional advantage is that they are made of cheap and harmless materials. The module developed will be used for energy storage and intelligent management in buildings, being a complement to other systems assessed within the ECO_SA2VE sub-project. For the above purpose, IMDEA Energy has established an agreement with the US Company Enable IPC, proprietary of the exploitation rights of the technology for coating carbon substrates with nanoporous membranes of insulating oxides, so that to apply those materials in the cells of the supercapacitors module. Such materials have been developed by Professor Marc Anderson in the University of Wisconsin–Madison who is now collaborating with IMDEA Energy as R&D Manager of the Electrochemical Processes Group.
Figura 1. Relative size of a commercial supercapacitor (up),
the new generation one (down), and a quarter dollar coin.
Figura 2. Parts of a new generation supercapacitor compared
to a quarter dollar coin.
