Contact Information: Contact: Investor Relations Rich Kaiser (800) 631-8127 ir@enableipc.com
Enable IPC Discusses Smart Grid and Ultracapacitor Opportunities in the Energy Storage Market in Corporate Update
VALENCIA, CA--(Marketwire - October 14, 2009) - Enable IPC Corporation (PINKSHEETS : EIPC )
today issued a corporate update to shareholders and interested investors,
focusing on the energy storage markets for the Smart Grid and power quality
applications, and opportunities in these areas, for ultracapacitors. The
idea behind the "Smart Grid" is to use technology to update the power grid,
delivering commercial and residential power in a more efficient manner,
saving energy, reducing costs and enhancing power quality and reliability.
Enable IPC's ultracapacitor technology is aimed at a market estimated to
grow to over $600 million by the year 2012. Enable recently released an
ultracapacitor design that the Company is currently working on under the
Wisconsin Energy Independence Fund grant. The unit will be scalable,
meaning it will be able to provide anywhere from a few hundred farads to as
much as 10,000 farads using the same container. This will allow Enable to
use the same packaging for multiple applications. Initially, the Company is
focusing this design on renewable energy uses. For more detailed
information on ultracapacitors, please visit the corporate website at:
http://www.enableipc.com/ultracapacitor.html.
The corporate update issued today is available on the corporate website at
http://www.enableipc.com/update102009.html and has been included in its
entirely below:
Enable IPC Corporate Update
Energy Storage for Smart Grid and Power Quality Applications
The hype about batteries, ultracapacitors and their use in a wide range of
energy markets seems to be intensifying of late. A variety of recent
articles and reports have discussed this, as did our webinar last January
and third-party market research reports from companies like Frost and
Sullivan, the Icon Group, iRAP and many others.
The Smart Grid is even smarter with energy storage. Power quality in the
digital age is more important than ever. These, along with hybrid and
electric transportation, are needed to reduce our dependence on imported
oil from unstable parts of the world. All of these applications will
benefit from more efficient and cost effective energy storage.
According to most reports we have seen, the most common form of energy
storage for power transmission consists of banks of lead acid batteries,
which are used mostly because they are the least expensive technology
available today. Other technologies in use and on the horizon include
vanadium reflux flow batteries, sodium sulfur batteries, large lithium ion
batteries, flywheels, pumped hydro, compressed air and ultracapacitors.
Each have their advantages and disadvantages, but the bottom line is that
the lion's share of the grid energy storage market will go to the
technologies that are the most efficient and have the lowest total capital
costs and highest reliability.
Enable IPC and SolRayo are betting that our improved ultracapacitor
technology will be prominently in the mix, especially in high value
applications that demand high power for relatively short periods of time.
This is an area where ultracapacitors can really shine.
Ultracapacitors offer many advantageous attributes including: rapid
response time, low maintenance, operating lifetimes in excess of one
million cycles, broad operating temperature range (-40 degrees C to 60
degrees C), high cycle efficiency (well in excess of 90%), environmentally
friendly construction, and up to ten times the power density of batteries.
However, there are two main factors preventing large-scale transformational
use of ultracapacitors: cost and energy storage density.
We expect our technology to significantly improve the energy storage
density of ultracapacitors as well as reduce the overall production costs
by using custom nano-engineered surface finishes to improve performance
while lowering production costs. This should make ultracapacitors
feasible in a wide variety of advanced energy storage applications.
The Opportunity: Description of the Opportunity, Size of the Market and
Needs
In the past couple years or so, we have found several third-party market
research reports that have published figures on the total, global market
for ultracapacitors that range from as low as $113 million to as high as $2
billion in 2008. The one constant among the reports, however, is the
anticipated growth rate of the industry as improvements make the devices
more attractive for additional applications.
The average annual growth rate (AAGR) for ultracapacitors, based on these
reports, will be between 15% and 20% annually for the next five years or
so. Some reports expect an AAGR as high as 30%
One of the areas in which growth is expected is in renewable energy
storage. Market research reports seem to vary significantly, however, one
recent report suggested that the market for batteries and ultracapacitors,
specifically addressing grid storage applications, could reach $8.3 billion
by 2016.
The key to market acceptance for ultracapacitors is in improving the energy
storage and lowering the costs -- both of which can be done using our
technology.
Where We Need To Get To and How We Will Get There
We have already seen significant improvements in our technology, and we are
continuing to work with the design and initial prototypes to reach our
stated goals. In about three months (January 2010), a final prototype unit
is scheduled to be available as a result of the funding we received from
the Wisconsin Energy Independence Fund (WEIF). This unit will demonstrate
the feasibility of our technology and design.
In addition, we either have submitted, or are in the process of submitting,
proposals amounting to just under $11 million to a number of opportunities,
most of which are directly related to various ways of improving
ultracapacitor performance while lowering the cost.
Summary
We believe the dramatic improvement in energy storage and costs will make
ultracapacitors cost competitive in, and open the door to their use across,
a wide array of energy storage applications. While each application will
require a specific cost analysis, we believe many applications will be
dramatically transformed by these improvements.
About Enable IPC Corp. (Intellectual Property Commercialization)
Enable IPC provides efficient, streamlined strategies for turning
technologies into products and bringing them to market. Though not limited
to nanotechnology or the energy industries, Enable IPC's growing portfolio
currently includes the exclusive rights to two break-through energy
technologies. The company seeks to turn technologies into products and is a
transparent, fair turnkey partner for sub-licensing and joint development
with other companies.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements, such as "estimated,"
"could," "should" and similar terminology that are made pursuant to the
safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties, which may cause a company's actual results in the future to
differ materially from forecasted results. These risks and uncertainties
include, among other things, the ability to secure additional financing for
the company, changing economic conditions, business conditions, and the
risks inherent in the operations of a company.