Decades of work and collaboration led to a green energy storage solution – Estonian researchers Jaan Leis, Mati Arulepp and Anti Perkson found a way to use curved graphene to store energy and emit it quickly; their invention ultimately led to a company called Skeleton that will soon open the largest supercapacitor factory in Europe.
What are ultracaps & supercapacitors?
Ultracaps, also known as supercapacitors, are an energy storage alternative to batteries, and Skeleton's menu of SkelCap cells, modules, systems, and welding services, are based on curved graphene, a nanomaterial developed by its co-founders in Estonia.
Why are supercapacitors important?
Supercapacitors are essential for producing and storing green energy. The curved graphene invented by Leis, Arulepp and Perkson made the existing supercapacitors much more efficient. They could keep and provide bursts of energy better than other commercial carbons, withstanding over one million charge cycles.
GREENCAP joins a multi-disciplinary consortium with 5 Universities, 1 R&D Institute, 6 companies, located in 8 European countries including Italy, Germany, France, Ireland, United Kingdom, Estonia, Ukraine and the Netherlands, to unlock the full potential of supercapacitors (SCs) as electrochemical energy storage systems. of the total project.
And one potential means for export is hydrogen. Estonia is even weighing building a hydrogen-producing plant in Ida-Viru County in eastern Estonia, traditionally a region of energy production focused on oil shale extraction, but that may be repurposed to serve this new focus on renewable energy production and export.
The curved graphene invented by Leis, Arulepp and Perkson made the existing supercapacitors much more efficient. They could keep and provide bursts of energy better than other commercial carbons, withstanding over one million charge cycles. They are up to thirty per cent more efficient than other analogous supercaps.
Next year, Skeleton will open the largest supercapacitor factory in Europe, producing twelve million cells a year. As the new generation of engineers is taking over, the three Estonian scientists are remaining in their small town in Tartu where it all started. Marian Männi is an Estonian investigative journalist.