Ultracapacitor manufacturer Skeleton Technologies confirmed on August 24 that it was developing a new energy storage system “along similar lines” to its SkelRack product, a module designed for automated production lines and grid applications.

SkelRack is based on Skeleton’s SkelCap ultracapacitor cells, which provide the highest power and energy density on the market, the company claims.

Taavi Madiberk, cofounder of Skeleton, told Batteries International in spring 2015 that the company was on track to produce ultracaps that could challenge lead acid energy density by 2017.

Energy density is a key development challenge for the ultracap market and is fundamental if the technology is to eventually replace battery storage.

Skeleton did not give further details of the new storage system, but said it would be released “in the coming weeks”.

The Estonia-based company announced on August 3 that it had been handed $15 million by Malaysian venture capital firm FirstFloor Capital in the latest round of funding for Skeleton.

The money would be spent on “finalizng our scale-up in Estonia and developing our scaling-up of our factory operations in Germany, which we expect to be online by the first quarter of 2017”, said co-founder Taavi Madiberk.

“This would move us from high-end production closer to the mass market,” he said, without giving further details.

On July 4, Skeleton Technologies signed a partnership with French firm Flying Whales to power heavy-lift airships for industrial applications in France and China.

The firm will help design and build hybrid propulsion for the Flying Whales’ LCA60T electric power systems using its graphene-based supercapacitors.