Skeleton gets 51 mln euros cash injection from Germany

Estonia’s Skeleton Technologies said it gets an additional $60 million (€51 million) funding to scale up ultracapacitors production in its factory in Germany.

Skeleton Technologies’ development plans have received official backing from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Free State of Saxony, within the framework of the “European Battery Innovation – EuBatIn” IPCEI.

Skeleton Technologies – the largest European manufacturer of ultracapacitors – unveiled its plans to develop first-of-its-kind production technology for manufacturing its ultracapacitors, following the official support announced by German authorities in January.

The economies of scale provided by this new technology, combined with the use of Skeleton’s patented “curved graphene” material, will dramatically drive the production costs down, boosting the competitiveness of ultracapacitors as the key enabling technology for the future of transportation and electrification.

“We are continuously investing in R&D – whether it is improving the performance of our products or the process in which we make those products. The next stage of our production will see an implementation of fully automated Industry 4.0 manufacturing techniques – a first-of-its-kind in the ultracapacitor industry,” Skeleton CEO Taavi Madiberk said in a statement.

“Coupled with our curved graphene material, we are able to dramatically decrease the cost of ultracapacitors. The ultracapacitor industry is in the same situation as lithium-ion batteries were in 1999, but our advancements in core technology and production capabilities will be able to show a cost reduction faster than for any other energy storage technology. We have a clear road map to lower it by almost 90% after completion of our 5 years project,” he said.

“With a projected annual volume of around 250 billion euros by 2025, the European battery industry will play a key role in the continent’s economic recovery,” said Christian Müller, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy in Germany, which is one of the drivers of the European Battery Alliance and one of Skeleton’s investors.

Skeleton Technologies has three main locations: its manufacturing in Großröhrsdorf, Saxony, Germany, materials development in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Saxony-Anhalt and electrical engineering in Tallinn, Estonia. From its foundation in 2009, the company has grown from 4 to more than 150 people.

“The battery projects under the IPCEIs will give us the critical mass we need for a sustainable and competitive value chain for batteries in Germany,” said Marco Wanderwitz, Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal States.