[LINK] ultracapacitors

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 10:05 +1000, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> Five minutes in a normal power outlet ...

Richard, YOU invented the "normal power outlet". Neither the journalist
not the company mentioned a normal power outlet. Now the patent may be
snake oil or it may not be, but this is what the it has to say about
recharging:

"The EESU can also be rapidly charged without damaging the material or
reducing its life. The cycle time to fully charge a 52 kWh EESU would be
in the range of 4 to 6 minutes with sufficient cooling of the power
cables and connections."

The feature they claim for their battery is in essence that it can take
a very fast hit, i.e., that it can store a LOT of energy very fast.
Current technology batteries have to be charged much more slowly,
basically because the energy input has to physically move chemicals
around in solutions or whatever.

They say that it will be safer than gasoline - hm - I sure wouldn't want
to get a hit fom a charging connector! And if the cables need that much
cooling, I wonder how much energy is being wasted. I'd have thought
they'd want BIG cross-section connectors to avoid that...

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)