Transportation - Maximum capacity

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is partnering with SBE Inc., a Barre, Vt., power and electronics firm, to help test and improve electric vehicle capacitors. The Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center, part of ORNL's Energy and Transportation Science Division, will assess and evaluate SBE's capacitor technologies and their applicability for use as direct current buss capacitors for electric drives in hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicles. ORNL also will develop a test procedure that will exercise the capacitors and determine their reliability and safe operation limits. The collaborative work is funded by $550,000 granted under the "Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative" of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.