<html><head><base href="data:"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><base href="data:">FyI<div>R<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Robert Milligan <<a href="mailto:mill@continuum.org">mill@continuum.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">August 5, 2010 11:33:44 PM GMT-04:00</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Darshpreet Bhatti <<a href="mailto:bdarshpr@region.waterloo.on.ca">bdarshpr@region.waterloo.on.ca</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Cc: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Nancy Button <<a href="mailto:bnancy@region.waterloo.on.ca">bnancy@region.waterloo.on.ca</a>>, Becky Schlenvogt <<a href="mailto:sbecky@region.waterloo.on.ca">sbecky@region.waterloo.on.ca</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>IEEE Spectrum: A Battery-Capacitor Hybrid (A potentially disruptive technology)</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">Darshpreet, </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">Thank you for our brief discussion the other day. Also, I am glad that you enjoyed your western Canada vacation -- especially Banff! Now you are likely fully rested for the great LRT challenges ahead.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">I agree that the current approaches by LRT manufacturers Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier, ...</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">to on-board electrical energy storage (Ni-Cd etc. batteries &/or ultra-capacitors) is very expensive. And I really appreciate that Alstom and Siemens especially have some installed systems that combine a catenary and on-board electrical storage for special short-distance situations (mostly "heritage" streets) &/or a complete LRT system with charging at each station -- thus helping to prove feasibility of (similar) concept.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">However, the future of lower cost, better performing, ... on-board energy storage is here at least in the form of the proven and being-manufactured 'UltraBattery" (a battery/ultra-capacitor integration)!! (And the new EEStor technology seems even better if lives up to cost/performance predictions! See, <a href="http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/01/eestor_ultracap.html">http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/01/eestor_ultracap.html</a>).</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; ">Furukawa Battery, in Yokohama, Japan, which has already begun manufacturing the devices. Researchers at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), who invented the <b>UltraBattery</b>, tested it early this year in a Honda Insight hybrid, which ran for 160 000 kilometers.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; ">"</span></span></div><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/advanced-cars/a-batterycapacitor-hybridfor-hybrids">http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/advanced-cars/a-batterycapacitor-hybridfor-hybrids</a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div>Googling will produce all sorts of validation sites. Here are a few:</div><div><a href="http://www.furukawadenchi.co.jp/english/release/080924.pdf">http://www.furukawadenchi.co.jp/english/release/080924.pdf</a></div><div><a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1492331">http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1492331</a></div><div><a href="http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/East-Penn-Brings-UltraBattery-Technology-to-North-America-820994">http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/East-Penn-Brings-UltraBattery-Technology-to-North-America-820994</a></div><div><a href="http://www.csiro.au/news/UltraBattery4HybridCars.html">http://www.csiro.au/news/UltraBattery4HybridCars.html</a></div><div><a href="http://www.csiro.au/science/Ultra-Battery.html">http://www.csiro.au/science/Ultra-Battery.html</a></div><div><a href="http://jcwinnie.biz/wordpress/?p=3280">http://jcwinnie.biz/wordpress/?p=3280</a></div><div><br></div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><b>With an on-board bank of Ultra-Batteries, you could very quickly (seconds vs. minutes) re-charge at terminals and capture re-generative braking energy at stations at least </b>-- as I have been suggesting, but using an on-board lithium-titanate battery as in the Proterra bus (my recent research caused a re-think here because I discovered very high energy-recharging costs, besides the high cost of the battery itself, etc.). </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">And with the right LRT manufacturer, our very innovative Waterloo Region could be the first in the World to do this, and thereby further reduce LRT system costs, etc. ! </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; ">Note: bcc copies are being sent to other parties who may have an interest.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div>Best wishes,</div><div>Robert</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>