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The size of the current global markets for ultracapacitors is estimated at about $300 mil. and it is growing 20-30% annually.
There are three major markets for ultracapacitors:
- Existing applications for ultracapacitors
- Replacement of storage batteries and conventional capacitors
- New significant applications of ultracapacitors (e.g. hybrid-electrical vehicles (HEVs), portable welding machines)
Major applications niches for ultracaps are:
- Consumer electronics
- Add-on for Li-Ion batteries
- Instant (3-5 sec) charge (for 20-30% battery level) without a special charging device for handsets PDAs, laptops
- Transportation:
- Engine starter
- Hybrid engine component (stores energy during braking and uses it for acceleration)
- Industrial power management
- Power quality at operating enterprises
- Combined power supply units with solar cells or wind energetics
Table1. Major application niches for ultracapacitors of different size, and how APC meets the requirements:
| Application |
Small
(100-101 g) |
Medium
(100-102 kg) |
Large
(102-103 kg) |
| Consumer electronics |
3-12 V
1-100F/cell
0.110 - 100 W |
|
|
| Transportation |
|
10-100 V
100-10 000 F/cell
0.1-1 000 kW
|
100-1 000 V
10 000-100 000 F/cell
0.1-100 MW
|
| Industrial power quality |
|
10-100 V
100-10 000 F/cell
0.1-1 000 kW
|
100-1 000 V
10 000-100 000 F/cell
0.1-100 MW
|
| APCT advantage in |
Mass - modest
Cost - modest
Safety - good |
Mass - good
Cost - modest
Safety - good |
Mass - very big
Cost - very high
Safety - good |
APC supercapacitors can demonstrate much better performance than those of competitors in all the applications listed in Table 1 due to much lower inner resistance and much higher power density. However, in small devices the APC advantage in mass and cost is modest because of large contribution from packaging, but this advantage becomes more and more significant with increase in size.
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