Flash charging used to mean leaving a smartphone plugged in for 15 minutes. If we were lucky, this topped the battery up half way. This is a sure-fire way to shorten battery life. We cannot recommend it. Regular capacitors are however a different matter. They live for supercharging in an instant. The ABB group is currently flash charging supercapacitors in buses in seconds by using this technology.
The project is on a busy bus route between Geneva suburbs and the airport. There, fully electric buses run on super capacitors. The problem has been persuading commuters to wait a few minutes while they run up to full charge. But ABB has found the answer. Use supercapacitors as the energy source, and it works!
How Flash Charging Works on Bus Route 23
The route has fifty stops for passengers to step on, or step off. Of these, thirteen have the new solar-powered supercapacitor charging technology.
As a bus glides silently to a halt, a contact rises to meet a supercapacitor flash charger delivering 600 kilowatts in 15 seconds. ABB only uses this extreme technology on the road.
Back at the depot, buses are content to wait three to five minutes for a 200-kilowatt boost. See this short video for more info on this topic.
We know the Geneva grid could never deliver power like this. The flash charging supercapacitors do this with ease.
They may not have energy storage density to compare with batteries. But what they have, they can deliver almost instantaneously.
This is just the thing for commuters already late for airport connections.
There is More Good News to Come
On cloudy days, the flash chargers draw less current from the grid than what would otherwise be the case. This achieves a ten-time electricity saving when circumstances require. Furthermore, the charging program adapts to periods of lower passenger demand. This smart functionality doubles the life of the ABB flash charging supercapacitors.
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