Skeleton Technologies, Europe’s leading manufacturer of high-performance, graphene-based ultracapacitors, has won the ECO15 London Award. Part of the Ecosummit 2015 conference in London, the award recognises the best “smart green startup” in Europe.
Until recently batteries have been the technology of choice for storing electrical energy. But advances in nanomaterial technology over the last decade have significantly increased the competitiveness of ultracapacitors, making them an ideal complement, and sometimes a better alternative, to batteries.
Few materials have generated as much excitement as graphene. Dubbed the “holy grail” when scientists at Manchester University first demonstrated the incredible strength of a material just one atom thick, graphene was hailed as the answer to pretty much everything, with applications in transport, medicine, electronics, energy and defence.
A decade later we’ve seen a whole host of companies launching in this field, many to considerable interest from the investment community. (When Applied Graphene Materials came to the market in 2013, the share price rose 200% in just three days.) The problem is that the vast majority of these companies have yet to generate significant revenues from sales. As yet, graphene is not being incorporated into end applications, where its true value can be realised.
If you’ve read our previous blog posts on graphene and the advantages of ultracapacitors over traditional battery technology, you already have some understanding of what ultracapacitors are used for and what can be accomplished with them.
Graphene has been a buzzword in the high-tech industries since its discovery in 2004. The wonder material, dubbed the “holy grail” when its strength was first demonstrated, has potential applications in so many industries that most have lost count. There’s a lot of talk, but not as much success in terms of commercializing graphene-based products and actually bringing the value, that graphene inherently possesses as a raw material, to different applications.
Space awakes in us our inner adventurer, the yearning for pioneering and charting new territories as the corners of our earth are mapped out at an increasing speed.
Picture a bus in a crowded city, and you immediately think of a repugnant noisy vehicle spewing noxious fumes from its tailpipe. With well over 34,000 buses in operation in Europe, reducing their fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is a worthy goal.
Automobiles are frequently left idling at red lights, sitting in traffic jams, or loading and unloading passengers. In a recent traffic study it was discovered that the average driver with a 30-minute commute spends 101 hours per year in traffic delays in Marseille, France, and 106 hours per year idling in Warsaw, Poland. Unfortunately, with the engine running, more than time is wasted.
Skeleton Technologies is growing rapidly and is always on the lookout for new talent, but we couldn't have gotten to where we are today without some great people in our ranks. In our management profiles series we take a look at the people who have been a big part in getting the company to where it is today, and will surely have a big role in the continuing growth of Skeleton Technologies. The first one on the hotseat is our Production Manager and a modern renaissance man, Ants Vill.
Last week we took a look at the automotive industry and how much fuel could be saved if more passenger cars would be equipped with start-stop systems. Today we'll continue our foray into different industries and how ultracapacitors can provide significant financial and environmental benefits by investigating the trucking and transportation industries.
This week on our Skeleton Management Profiles series the spotlight falls on Maris Kadakas, Skeleton’s Human Resources Manager. Throughout her career and even before it really started, Maris Kadakas felt a calling to work with people and help them grow as individuals. She is passionate about finding the right individuals for the right positions and seeing those people thrive in their jobs.
Renewable energy sources tend to be intermittent and fluctuate according to the weather conditions, such as the amount of sunshine or how strong the wind is on any given day. Passing clouds and wind gusts can cause spikes in energy production. Despite this, renewable energy production is on a huge upward curve. This is especially true for solar and wind energy.
This week we sat down with Skeleton’s Chief Financial Officer, Indrek Kaldoja, who seems to have used his mathematical skills to bend time as he juggles the demands of growing Skeleton to new heights, being a father, advising funds, lecturing and studying at Tallinn University of Technology, and doing construction work for fun.
Don’t worry, you’re not the first person to wonder about that. If you’re looking for a short answer, here it is: there is no difference. Ultracapacitor and supercapacitor are the exact same thing. For a longer answer we need to delve deeper into the origins of the words and the history of ultracapacitors (or supercapacitors, whichever you prefer).
This is the first part of our Culture Code blog series and your chance to see how Skeleton Technologies operates. We are not a traditional company by any means. We have clear and ambitious goals, and we work hard to reach them. It takes something exceptional to be the best, and the Skeleton culture is the pillar we lean on.
The series includes the following six blog posts:
1. We Help to Save Energy - the Skeleton Culture
3. How We Work - the Skeleton Way
4. How We Get the Best out of Our People
5. We Are Here Because of Our Customers
6. Never Stop Moving Forward
We'll publish new posts once a week. If you want to be notified, please subscribe to our newsletter on the sidebar. Without further ado, let's get to it!
Every company has a culture. Sometimes it’s called atmosphere, organizational culture, workplace environment, or even the genetic code of a company. What you call it doesn’t matter, but what is important to understand is that culture can make or break a company.
In the last installment of our Skeleton Management Profiles blog series we talk to Renee Joost, the Chief Technical Officer at Skeleton Technologies. Dr. Joost has experience working on multi-million euro projects and is now spearheading the development of the next generation of ultracapacitor-based energy storage.
Some people see motorsports as a frivolous waste of fuel and money, while others recognize the value in pushing the envelope to see just how fast or efficient a motor vehicle can become. Technological advances (e.g., rearview mirrors, disc brakes, the aerodynamics of modern cars) are often discovered first on the racetrack, with the best ideas trickling down and being incorporated into passenger vehicles.
Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix has famously said that:
Equivalent series resistance (ESR), also known as internal resistance, is a value representing the loss of useful energy in a simple electronic circuit consisting of a resistor and an ideal (perfect) capacitor.
