Low Electric Car Charging Rate Issue Has A New Solution: Kinetic Energy Storage
Several companies, auto makers and technology firms alike, have been eyeing to reduce the charging time taken by electric vehicles to within minutes. While most of them are still in the process of coming up with the apt technology, one Israeli firm seems to have the answer ready and is already deploying it in several areas across the world.
Chakratec, an eMobility firm operating out of Lod, Israel, says that its patented kinetic energy storage system is a solution for the slow/ irregular charging rates. The “smart energy storage solution,” as the company calls it, works on kinetic energy to enable fast and ultra-fast EV charging anywhere.
The localised storage solution for electric vehicle charging stores electricity as kinetic energy in a fast-rotating flywheel. Chakratec has filed for multiple patents on the technology, basically for two-way advantages. First, it says that the solution can provide unlimited high-power charge and discharge cycles (more than 200,000) without degradation over the full system lifetime of 20 years. Another big plus is that the system is green and reusable, as it does not utilise any chemicals in its working like other battery storage solutions.
The concept can be seen working as a toilet flush tank, only it works for electricity. The company claims that the charging required for the patented storage solution costs one-tenth of traditional lithium-ion batteries. “[The unlimited cycles] means you don’t have to replace the batteries at all, the cost per cycle is very low, and it’s green and sustainable,” reiterates Chakratec CEO and co-founder Ilan Ben David in an interaction.
Started by Ben David in 2013 along with two fellow alumni David Pincu and Nir Zohar, of the IDF’s Unit 8200 Israeli Intelligence Corps unit that is responsible for collecting signal intelligence, the storage solutions are deployed in Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic as of now.
CHAKRATEC ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE (IMAGE: CHAKRATEC)
Chakratec is currently focussing on the European market, which presently has one of the highest adoption of electric vehicles. The firm has even partnered with Czech automobile manufacturer Skoda for this and is in talks for commercial partnerships with others as well.
“We are working with utility providers, original equipment manufacturers and others. I don’t know exactly how the electric vehicle charging market will end up,” Ben David said.
Though the adoption of the unique solution is still in the nascent stage, the potential is huge as and when the firm progresses with its partnerships with other players shaping the EV industry. The fact that it already deploys the solution with a complete charging service network including installation, electricity, back-end and service operation shows that Chakratec is the real deal and will be a very potent option when regions across the globe start setting up their electric charging networks.
Source: indiatimes
