Kilowatt Labs Announces Development of Solid State Supercap Cells
Kilowatt Labs announced successful development of its solid-state supercap cell prototype. The prototype has an energy density of 450Wh/kg, and can be formed into any shape and operate as supercap storage.
This is the next generation approach towards energy storage – structural storage in which there are no embedded batteries, rather the material itself is the energy storage device. For example, in a car, its body is the energy storage with the electrical storage is provided by the layers of supercap and composite materials. The concept of structural storage was first developed by the US military in the mid-2000s using carbon fiber for the cell’s electrodes, but is now gaining increasing attention in research and industry as the shift to electrification in every aspect of life gathers pace and the size and weight of batteries becomes an impediment to this progress.
Our idea is to develop the solid state supercap as a sheet, similar to a carbon fibre sheet. The supercap sheet can then be cut into different forms – for example the body of a vehicle or the body of a phone, all made entirely of the supercap, which would significantly enhance storage capacity. The design is now being tested, with the Company targeting completion and launch of a product within the next 6 months. The Company is confident that this development will be a defining moment in energy storage.