Energy saving by onboard storage

The Ansaldobreda Research Department has carried out a study and experimentation on an innovative energy storage system consisting of supercap's modules installed on an electrical vehicle. Since the supercap's have very short charge time (few seconds), it is possible to store high energy gradients. Therefore their application allows the optimisation of energy consumption as well as the achievement of an high energy recovery during the braking phase. The energy stored during the transients can be utilised during the starting phase until the cruising speed is reached. In this way, the batteries are used only for the running phases, also determining their life cycle improvement. Test on the small electrical vehicle has shown that the energy recovered in the braking phase is about a 30% of the starting energy. This energy storage system can be applied to vehicles as electrical buses, hybrid vehicles or trams