Skeleton Technologies, an Estonian energy storage technology firm, announced recently that it will develop a new plant producing supercapacitors near Leipzig, Germany, with manufacturing beginning in 2024. Supercapacitors, like batteries, store and release energy in smaller quantities and at quicker rates.
Supercapacitors
Skeleton Technologies manufactures its supercapacitors in Estonia using aluminium and a carbon-based substance, recouping and releasing energy created naturally, such as when a vehicle brake or an elevator or crane moves downwards. Supercapacitors from Skeleton are utilised in transportation, grid, industrial, and automotive applications to minimise CO2 emissions and save energy.
The factory in Markranstaedt, which will be Europe’s largest, will produce 12M cells per year, with 8M being smaller cells for passenger vehicles and 4M being larger cells for heavy-duty transportation and the electrical grid.
Investment
Skeleton plans to invest €220M in the facility. Siemens’ technology is projected to reduce production costs by complementing Skeleton’s proprietary ‘curved graphene’ material. The agreement will help Skeleton digitise its whole supply chain and scale up manufacture of next-generation capacitors.
Skeleton Technologies, founded in 2009 by Oliver Ahlberg and Taavi Madiberk, is a manufacturer and developer of high energy and power density ultracapacitors based on unique curved graphene material. Across the industry, they provide high-power, high-energy, dependable, and long-life storage solutions. They have achieved global advancements in ultracapacitor performance by using patented nanoporous carbide-derived carbon, or ‘curved graphene.’
The company’s ultracapacitors have twice the energy density and four times the power density of competitors.
“Supercapacitors are a key element in dramatically reducing emissions in the power generation, transportation and industrial sectors,” explained Taavi Madiberk, CEO, and co-founder of Skeleton Technologies.
“Both Skeleton and Siemens think that the global economy is undergoing fundamental shifts in some of the most significant carbon emission sources, such as electricity generation, transportation, and industry.” Supercapacitors are a critical component in significantly decreasing emissions in various areas.”
“The various applications of this technology provide enormous help in electrifying sectors of industry where electrification cannot be efficiently implemented with batteries,” says Michael Kellner, Parliamentary State Secretary at the BMWK.
“EcoPARKs is very delighted to deliver the space for Skeleton, a market and technology leader in energy storage technologies, in our ecoPARK in Leipzig-West/Markranstädt. We are excited to support Skeleton to roll out an impressive scale-up of their business and build together the biggest supercapacitor factory in the world. Our ecoPARK currently under construction will have the highest environmental standards, based on circular economy, energy efficiency, and the use of solar energy on the full roof area for local consumption. It will therefore ensure a limited carbon footprint, proving that it is possible to combine economy and ecology”, stated Wilm Schwarzpaul, Executive Partner at ecoPARKs.
