Energy Storage

We study the effect of internal capacitor within super-capacitors (a capacitor within a capacitor, or CWC).  Super capacitors are electrolytic-based capacitors where the capacitance is built at the interface between the electrolyte and electrodes.  We add a third electrode – the gate electrode – between the anode and the cathode electrodes.  This electrode is porous and structured; it was shown to increase the capacitance of super-capacitors by 50%.

Capacitor-within-capacitor – a new super-capacitor concept
 

Energy Distribution

We study packatized energy distribution whereby the energy is first requested by, and then granted to specific users.  No one else can use the energy since the energy is addressable. Similarly to information networks, the energy is digitally coded – the message is energy.  

Simulations and experiments demonstrated the advantage of this new energy distribution concept.  For example; when a motor is turned ON it consume substantially more current than while running at steady states. This peak consumption may impact the grid stability since the turning of the motor ON and OFF is random and the grid need to fast respond to these demand fluctuations. 

An addressable supercapacitor that is charged during down times may help turning a motor ON and thus mitigate the impact of these high peak power fluctuations.

The digital grid is envisioned as an energy on demand network. The energy is coded and reaches only the user's address.