For those wanting to see through the extremely dense fog of hype on HC FGR into the land of what is real....
Read the following about capacitors and super capcitors and especially the following quotes.
(The link is to Battery University) . By the time you finish, you will see SC as a good new thing, with a bright future and a role to play. SC provides some tail wind to FGR and if a 100 bagger I'll be happy, but SC is not going to kill/replace/make redundant batteries. SC will sit in its own useful niche, as will FGR - FGR won't be the world conquering monopolist, but sitting at the premium end. which is good. But lets not get carried away.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/whats_the_role_of_the_supercapacitor
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The third type is the
supercapacitor, rated in farads, which is thousands of times higher than the electrolytic capacitor. The supercapacitor is
used for energy storage undergoing frequent charge and discharge cycles at high current and short duration. (Which is what I said at the beginning. its an adjunct for solar, or when quick response is needed)
The supercapacitor has evolved and crosses into battery technology by using special electrodes and electrolyte. ....... the Asymmetric Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitor (AEDLC) uses battery-like electrodes to gain higher energy density,
but this has a shorter cycle life and other burdens that are shared with the battery.
Graphene electrodes promise improvements to supercapacitors and batteries but such developments are 15 years away.
(I accept that science can make breakthroughs and big reduction in R&D duration, but the fixed real world issues of public safety etc take their own sweet time. So I am sticking to somewhere between 5-10 years before you see them on the shelves at Coles. None of this diminishes that FGR has upside value, just do not bet your first born on a moonshot. Tempered optimism is what's called for.
)
The specific energy of the supercapacitor ranges from 1Wh/kg to 30Wh/kg, 10–50 times less than Li-ion. The discharge curve is another disadvantage. Whereas the electrochemical
battery delivers a steady voltage in the usable power band, the voltage of the supercapacitor decreases on a linear scale, reducing the usable power spectrum. (This means SC is too heavy when mass matters e.g. in cars. but a 10% heavier phone it won't matter.
)
(Starting fully charged) ...by the time the supercapacitor reaches this voltage threshold, a linear discharge only delivers 44% of the energy; the remaining 56% is reserved. An optional DC-DC converter helps to recover the energy dwelling in the low voltage band, but this adds costs and introduces loss. A battery with a flat discharge curve, in comparison, delivers 90 to 95 percent of its energy reserve before reaching the voltage threshold.
(Do not get confused by "efficent power efficiency" which means how empty you can get. Whereas Round-trip Efficiency is how much energy you put in compared with how much you got out i.e. is wasted as heat and radio waves. This costs you MONEY! "Efficient Power Efficiency" costs you in giving you less than you thought you had avaialble but needs tricky electonics to get it all our. Example: 100 Wh battery has usable max range about 80Wh of the energy it holds, but wastes only ~8% you bought i.e. 108 Wh. SC gives you 95% of what it holds i.e. 95Wh, but lost 30% of the energy you bought i.e. 133Wh purchased.)
The supercapacitor can be charged and discharged a virtually unlimited number of times. Unlike the electrochemical battery, which has a defined cycle life, there is little wear and tear by cycling a supercapacitor. Age is also kinder to the supercapacitor than a battery. Under normal conditions, a supercapacitor fades from the original 100 percent capacity to 80 percent in 10 years. Applying higher voltages than specified shortens the life. The supercapacitor is forgiving in hot and cold temperatures, an advantage that batteries cannot meet equally well.
The self-discharge of a supercapacitor is substantially higher than that of an electrostatic capacitor and somewhat higher than an electrochemical battery; the organic electrolyte contributes to this. The supercapacitor discharges from 100 to 50 percent in 30 to 40 days. Lead and lithium-based batteries, in comparison, self-discharge about 5 percent per month. (This means you need to keep recharging the SC more frequently than batteries.).
The following is exactly what I have been trying to get across, but much better written better.......
Supercapacitors are ideal when a quick charge is needed to fill a short-term power need; whereas batteries are chosen to provide long-term energy. Combining the two into a hybrid battery satisfies both needs and reduces battery stress, which reflects in a longer service life
Suoercapacitors are mst effective to bridge power gaps from a few seconds to a few minutes and can be recharged quickly.
(Again, exactly what I have been saying. A good application is regenerative braking where a SC is charged rather than a battery, and very illustrative of where batteries and SC each fit). ...AND FINALLY..
Supercapacitors have low specific energy and are expensive in terms of cost per watt. Some design engineers argue that the money for the supercapacitor would be spent better on a larger battery.
(Everything very consistent with what I wrote previously,, factual and no hype, I invested because I liked the story - unique properties, low cost source - yet to be proven but lets assume - feeding graphene supply into a nascent industry with demonstrable end market value. But lets not get blind to reality. ....)
