Evaluating an Innovative Supercapacitor Design for Grid-scale Storage Applications

Our Client & Their Goals

Our Client, an electrical grid operator, was pursuing the development of innovative design for a supercapacitor that used external magnetic fields to enhance the supercapacitor’s internal capacity. They wanted to assess the feasibility of their novel technological approach, and were especially interested in determining whether it would be suitable for high-power grid-scale energy storage. They recognised they needed expert assistance in evaluating their current design, improving its performance, and achieving their goal of developing a proof-of-principle prototype suitable for grid-scale energy storage.

CamIn's Solution

We selected two experts in supercapacitor designs, and one expert in grid-scale energy storage applications to serve on our project team. This mix of technological and industry experience ensured that we could effectively evaluate and improve our Client’s technology blueprint.

First, our technology sub-team assessed our Client’s initial design to confirm its viability for manufacturing. This work identified several fundamental issues with our Client’s design for their new supercapacitor but our team also determined optimisations that would make their design viable. Then our experts highlighted new features, improvements, and alternative solutions that our Client could consider for the next generation of their device, potentially resulting in improved energy storage performance. 

Our technology and industry teams then assessed our Client’s final blueprint to estimate the costs of additional development and the cost of a working prototype. We identified potential partners with expertise in supercapacitor components who could collaborate with our Client on their prototype development and reduce the total cost of the project.

Our team developed solutions for these design flaws, contributed additional improvements to the design, and expanded our Client’s development plans by providing promising directions for future research.

The Impact

Our analysis revealed several design problems that our Client had not recognised, thus saving them the expense of developing a flawed prototype. Our team developed solutions for these design flaws, contributed additional improvements to the design, and expanded our Client’s development plans by providing promising directions for future research. Through our work, our Client identified commercialisation partners to co-develop their new technology instead of having to spend all of their own resources on this project.