Maxwell Technologies' Blogs

Ultracapacitors Ensure Safe, Efficient, Low-Maintenance Wind Turbine Operation

Today’s megawatt class wind turbines are three-bladed, variable speed turbines. Each rotor blade is adjusted and controlled by an independent electro-mechanical pitch control mechanism located in the rotor or in the blade itself. The turbine has an electronic controller that constantly monitors its power output. If increasing wind velocity causes it to become too high, the controller signals the blade pitch mechanism to turn the rotor blades slightly out of the wind. When wind velocity decreases, the blades are pitched back into the wind. These adjustments optimize energy generation efficiency and avoid stress or damage to the drive train, reducing ...

Ultracapacitors could assist GM’s eAssist hybrid auto system

We read with interest General Motors’ recent announcement that it is introducing a fuel-saving technology it calls “eAssist” as standard equipment on some of its auto platforms, beginning with the 2012 model year. The system uses an electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack to assist the gasoline engine with acceleration, and it incorporates regenerative braking to charge the battery. GM says eAssist will improve fuel economy by 20 to 25 percent, so it will be an important step toward meeting the federal government’s 35.5 miles-per-gallon Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) fuel economy standard, which will take effect in ...

Stop-Start Autos: A Simple Premise

In my last post, I observed that in automotive design, as with so many things in life, the simplest answer is often the best answer. The question at hand was how best to make cars greener and more economical to operate. My answer is what the industry calls “stop-start idle elimination.” In keeping with the K-I-S-S (keep it simple, stupid) principle, the premise behind stop-start cars is simple: why burn gas when a car is coasting or stopped? In Europe and Asia, where gas and diesel fuel are far more expensive than here in the USA, automakers have been producing stop-start ...

Stop-Start: K-I-S-S for Greener Cars

You’ve heard it over and over, from the lips of football coaches, management gurus and countless others – Keep it simple stupid, or K-I-S-S. According to Wikipedia, “The KISS principle states that simplicity should be a key goal in design and that unnecessary complexity should be avoided.” Why, then is the quest for greener, more efficient cars following such a complicated, expensive, uncertain path? Literally billions of dollars are being thrown at the noble pursuit of zero-emission electric vehicles and the exotic battery chemistries they require. Yet most impartial observers agree that EVs are no where near being practical, economically, and ...

Ultracapacitors support fuel-saving stop-start system

Responding to the European Union’s CO2 emission reduction legislation and US CAFE fuel economy targets, major automakers around the world are aggressively implementing “stop-start” idle elimination systems across their main product lines. In fact, Industry sources forecast that within five years stop-start will be standard on 20 million internal combustion engine cars per year. However, all-battery energy storage solutions that current stop-start models are using have not quite measured up to automotive requirements for reliability and longevity. Not everyone is going to get it right, but Continental AG, a leading international automotive parts supplier, decided to team with Maxwell Technologies to ...