The World Wind Market :
A total installed capacity of 32 Giga watts ( 1 GW = 10 ^ 9 Watts = 1 billion watts !) from nearly 60,000 wind turbines account for about 0.02% of the total world electricity supply today.
The projected growth stands at 2 % by the year 2012. 145 GW of new capacity on offshore and land is expected to be installed within a decade, opening up a massive $150 billion energy market potential.
The Battery Bug :
Electricity produced during blustery periods can’t be easily stored. This is because the batteries used to store energy degrade with time by losing energy as heat.The problems with batteries are :
1) low efficiency
2) lesser operating life
3) fixed operating voltage
4) less power density
5) frequent maintenance
6) poor low temperature performance
The Ultra Solution :
The International scientific community has been working with this problem for decades now and they have a solution – Electrochemical double layer Capacitors christened as Ultra Capacitors or Super Capacitors. Let’s call them UCs !
They are simple solid state devices with high reliability offering excellent performance for these
“ burst power ” applications.
So, how does it work ?
When chemical reactions are involved in energy storage mechanism, the system becomes slow and needs constant repairs to ensure they work in proper ‘State of Health’ (SOH) and ‘State of Charge’ (SOC).
This is the inherent disadvantage in the working of conventional batteries.
Though UCs are so called ‘Electro-chemical’ devices, there are no chemical reactions in the mechanism. Instead, a double layered electrochemical UC stores energy electrostatically by polarizing an electrolytic solution. This is a kind of flip-flop mechanism which is highly reversible so that an Ultra Capacitor can switch between ‘Charge’ and ‘Discharge’ cycles rapidly without losing out its steam.
Conventional capacitors’ strength of power storage depends directly on the total available surface area of its plate electrodes. This is very much enhanced in UCs by innovative technique of using electrodes made of porous carbon, carbon aerogel or nanotubes and a small charge separation created by the dielectric separator.
The Universal Solution :
Ultra Capacitors are a boon not only for the Wind energy industry but also to the Solar energy buddies out there.
Not surprisingly, UCs can be used in place of even our lead-acid battery of cars. The goal of catching winds whenever they blow has thus now not a thing of the past – not without the magic box called Ultra Capacitors !
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