[LINK] ultracapacitors

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 11:38 +1000, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> Yeah. Big, thick copper busbars (ha! there's also probably not enough 
> copper lying around to kit out millions of homes with the ability to 
> recharge something like this!).

No. However, the recharge can be a lot slower if the car is just
standing around.

If these batteries are as good as they say, then I can see them being
replaceable: Roll into the service station, slide out your old battery
pack, slide in a new one, and you're on your way. Not a new idea, but
very feasible. At (say) 150 kilograms for the battery pack there will
have to be equipment to do it, but you need special equipment for petrol
and gas too...

> The snake-oil isn't in the concept of high-capability capacitors, but in 
> the "pitch" to the newsagency (in this case an Associated Press feature 
> writer) that the "five minute" charge is actually feasible or useful for 
> a consumer electric car.

Well, it's certainly useful, and a big electrical zap is no more
dangerous than a petrol explosion - in fact, probably less so. So I'd
say it wasn't too far off the mark. We downgrade the risks we are
familiar with.

Even a fifteen minute (a third of the current) or half hour (a sixht of
the current) full recharge is a HUGE advance on the 6 hours that are
currently required.

Regards, K.

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