this video is sponsored by clickup picture this a world powered by nothing but wind and
solar electric vehicles with endless range sounds like a dream right but there's just one problem
to achieve that dream we're gonna need a better way to store all that energy and distribute it
efficiently so far the solution has been batteries but one technology that's gained a lot of hype is
the super capacitor particularly super capacitors that utilize a new material called graphene until
recently this technology wasn't widely available with graphene supercapacitors gearing up for their
commercial debut it's worth exploring what they are how graphene factors in and what this could
mean for both great energy storage and individual applications so what are supercapacitors well i'm
glad you asked when it comes to energy storage we typically think of batteries which rely on
a chemical reaction between the cathode and anode and an electrolyte batteries are great for storing
lots of power compared to their weight their gravimetric energy density or specific energy
but while batteries have high specific energy they have a lower power density how much energy they
can discharge per battery unit this is why they're so great for evs where you typically don't need
rapid bursts of power but steady power for longer range the batteries can also take a long time to
charge and those charge discharge cycles generate heat which leads to degradation so what if we want
to store and release energy rapidly well this is where capacitors come in capacitors are similar
to batteries in that they are both ways of storing energy but capacitors have some very fundamental
differences capacitors have two conductor plates usually made out of aluminum separated by a
ceramic or glass insulator called a dielectric that collects positive and negative charges
unlike batteries restore energy chemically capacitors store electricity statically
basically capturing static electricity because the energy isn't transferred to another material
it stays electricity it can move around much more efficiently how efficiently when it comes
to power density capacitors are roughly 100 to a thousand times more efficient than batteries
this means if a lithium-ion battery has a power density of 100 watt hours per kilogram
a capacitor would have a power density of roughly 10 to 100 000 watt hours per kilogram think of a
flash bulb in an old camera which uses a lot of energy in a short period of time instead of using
a battery the flash uses a capacitor which draws energy from the battery to charge slowly over
time then when filled and ready it can discharge instantly nearly and power that big bright flash
we're all accustomed to without a capacitor the battery could only power a flash so bright and
it wouldn't be the same and since capacitors don't use chemical exchanges they don't heat up the way
batteries do meaning they don't degrade as quickly a 3 volt capacitor will stay a 3 volt capacitor
even after hundreds of thousands of cycles now where capacitors utterly pale in comparison to
batteries is in energy density tesla's current model 3 cells hold about 260 watt hours per
kilogram whereas dielectric capacitors have energy densities less than one watt hour per kilogram a
standard laptop battery weighs about one kilogram for a capacitor to store the same amount of energy
as a laptop it would need to weigh 260 kilograms about 573 pounds that's some laptop you'd be
lugging around now a supercapacitor sits somewhere between a standard capacitor and a battery
they use plates and dielectric but they also use an electrolyte ions build up around the insulator
creating a double layer of charge the plates are also carbon coated which increases the surface
area super capacitors also have a much smaller distance between the metal plates around 10 to 100
000 times shorter than a standard capacitor that smaller distance leads to a larger electric field
keep this in mind for later basically these distinctions mean more energy storage compared
to a standard capacitor a supercapacitor can store up to 28 watt hours per kilogram
28 times more than a standard capacitor and while that still doesn't match a lithium ion battery
it's getting closer and in some cases it may make more sense to use a supercapacitor over a battery
for example supercapacitor powered electric buses are very common in china the buses may not have
anywhere near the range of an ev but they don't need to they can simply go one or two stops and
then recharge in a matter of minutes then be on their way similar to the gyrobus which we covered
in a recent video check it out here they're also used in grid level renewables supercapacitors
show up in wind turbines to help control wind pitch they're also great at helping stabilize
energy delivery during peak periods anywhere that benefits from large bursts of energy in a short
period of time really and while scale may be an issue for things like phones batteries and evs
for grid storage that's really not you could have fields full of massive supercapacitors
out in the middle of a solar or wind farm and it wouldn't really matter that they take up a ton
of space and since supercapacitors are carbon based they can take the strain off the supply
chain for elements like lithium nickel and cobalt remember diversifying our energy storage materials
is a really good thing and this is where graphene comes in but before we get into that let me take a
minute to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how we make our videos and talk about our sponsor this
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month graphene comes from graphite that's stuff inside pencils graphite is a allotrope of carbon
having the same number of atoms but arranged differently giving it a distinct property graphite
typically has a three-dimensional crystalline structure graphene has a single two-dimensional
single atom layer thick hexagonal honeycomb shape why does this matter the structure allows
for the atoms to form strong covalent bonds as a result graphene boasts a tensile strength of 130
gigapascals a hundred times stronger than steel yet also remains incredibly flexible this unique
atomic structure also allows the electrons to move around more freely making graphene insanely
good at conducting both heat and electricity because graphene is so thin and conductive it's
an excellent candidate to take supercapacitors to the next level so remember earlier when we said
supercapacitors have a shorter gap between the plates allowing them to have more static charge
while typically as we mentioned those plates are made out of aluminum you can picture like aluminum
foil and that may appear to be really thin to our eyes but when we get down to the microscopic level
you can see it's actually pretty thick now compare that to graphene which has a thickness of only
one atom now in that same amount of space we can fit hundreds of thousands more of those gaps which
in turns means more energy storage the main reason we haven't seen graphene supercapacitors before
is that age-old question and issue of making them economically sound to mass produce and this
is where skeleton technology is making a seismic leap forward this european tech company based in
estonia a country i highly recommend you visit has found a way to break that cost barrier how do they
do it by using what's called curved graphene which essentially uses crumpled up sheets of graphene
the exact process is a pretty heavily guarded company secret but suffice it to say it has
brought the cost down so much that they're just about ready to hit the market how does
this technology stack up their current 3 volt ultra capacitors have a specific energy of 11.1
watt hours per kilogram with a specific power of 28.8 kilowatts per kilogram now again that
may not sound like a lot especially when you compare to a battery but the company says by
using graphene they've improved their technology by about 72 percent now you won't see these super
capacitors replacing lithium on batteries anytime soon so in that sense they may not totally change
the energy game the way some have prophesized but that doesn't mean they can't have a major impact
on many of the technologies you're using today skeleton technologies offers curve systems
for electric trains throughout europe that can recover up to 30 electricity depending
on whether train is used as a long distance train or a full stop commuter train this means cheaper
shipping and public transportation supercapacitors could also be used for low voltage situations
in your ev like your lights power autonomous vehicle computers ac and even other functions
taking the load off your car's main battery could theoretically increase range between 10
and 15 percent for model s with 400 miles of range that could add another 60 miles 20 miles more than
the average american's daily commute but when it comes to evs the real value of a super capacitor
is in energy generation during braking if you own an ev have you ever driven a car that has
one pedal driving if you get off the accelerator pedal that's pretty much max region that is the
maximum amount the car can recharge your battery pack too and it's pretty good but it's not like
slamming the brakes right if a car pulled out in front of you you'd slam the brakes and use your
normal mechanical brakes imagine if you had a three or four kilowatt hour ultra capacitor on
board that could charge and discharge at ludicrous levels and save that energy think about the
applications for evs in races like formula e where you're stopping and going constantly at full speed
it's pretty exciting and there's a ton of applications for them super capacitors could also
help you with rapid acceleration like your tesla model s ludicrous mode typically to achieve those
quick bursts of power you need a larger battery pack but doing so also stresses the battery which
is why tesla doesn't recommend using ludicrous mode all the time pairing a super capacitor with
a tesla battery could also help your vehicle accelerate really quickly without the added
battery strain preserving its lifespan again the racetrack situation right that's the perfect use
case for this but the applications don't end with vehicles as we mentioned supercapacitors
are also already in use in grid level renewables but what about your home solar intermittency can
wreak havoc on batteries as fluctuating outputs can interrupt battery charging and discharging
high energy demand in short periods of time can seriously impact the life of a home battery
installing a supercapacitor run in parallel with a home battery system could help reduce stress
on a battery by allowing sufficient energy in a short amount of time and leveling those peak
power requirements super capacitors could also make home solar systems more efficient allowing
storage of more pressure sunlight in a shorter window of time one study suggests that adding a
small fast responding storage device to your solar system could increase energy efficiency by as much
as 83 on a sunny day and up to 114 percent on a cloudy day this could also help reduce the battery
size since supercapacitors can share some of the power load this could bring down the home battery
system cost while also increasing battery life making home energy storage systems more
cost effective in the long run so will graphene supercapacitors be the game changing technology
that they were all projected to be well the jury is still out on that for one skeleton technologies
has to prove that they can manufacture graphene at scale we know how to produce graphene
but what we don't know how to do is produce it in the kind of volume and quantity to bring graphene
prices down low enough because the applications for graphene are far beyond supercapacitors but
that will be their biggest challenge and until they've completely figured that out
which really nobody else has that will always be that risk for this company now i know most of the
technology that we talk about on this channel tends to be five ten sometimes twenty or thirty
years away from hitting the market but thanks to skeleton technologies graphene supercapacitors
are about to be on the market like this year or next so they're right on the horizon and
how much they can produce and in what quantity remains to be seen so where do you think super
capacitors could thrive do you think the weight for a commercial application for graphene has
been worth it sound off in the comments below all right that is a look at the graphene
super capacitor this is pretty exciting stuff and in summary tldr they're not as energy dense
as batteries but they're dirt cheap to produce if we can get the graphene part sorted and they
don't really degrade because there's no chemical reaction so they can charge and discharge almost
instantly so anytime you would need that sort of thing they might make a ton of sense all right
i'm right tube adventure thank you guys so much for watching we'll catch you guys on the next one