Skeleton invests €220 million to build world’s largest supercap factory
The Estonian manufacturer of supercapacitors Skeleton and Siemens have concluded a far-reaching technology partnership for the development, planning and realisation of a fully automated, digitalised production facility for the manufacture of supercapacitors in Germany. The production line is to be used in a new Skeleton factory near Leipzig – Skeleton’s second production site in Saxony. The two partners hope to achieve economies of scale that should reduce the price of the supercapacitors by 90%. The use of Siemens technology and Skeleton’s patented “curved graphene” material are expected to contribute to this. Production is scheduled to start in 2024.
The collaboration aims to achieve the digitization of Skeleton’s entire value chain – from supercapacitor cell design to production and services – and scale up the production of next-generation supercapacitors. Siemens supports this with its comprehensive Digital Enterprise portfolio as well as domain know-how in industrial battery cell production. Furthermore, it is planned to further expand the business relations between the two companies.
Skeleton’s supercapacitors are used in transport, grid, industrial, and automotive applications and allow to reduce CO2 emissions and save energy. With the use of patented “curved graphene” material, Skeleton’s supercapacitors offer the highest power and energy density on the market, almost instant charging and discharging, high reliability, and very long lifetimes. They contribute to improving power quality and protecting equipment and infrastructure by lowering the power fluctuation, and to powering electrification.
The new factory for the next generation of supercapacitor cells in Markranstädtnewa Leipzig is scheduled to start production in 2024 and produce up to twelve million cells a year. The factory will have 40x more output than Skeleton’s other site in Saxony, which will continue as an R&D factory in the future, and 240 jobs are expected to be created. Skeleton will invest € 220 million in Saxony in scaling up production. Out of the investments, € 120 million will be used for scale-up and R&D while € 100 million will be invested in manufacturing equipment.
“A number of Siemens business units are already Skeleton’s customers and as the energy transition gathers pace, we see the volumes increasing. The strong relationship will be further cemented thanks to this partnership, we will now also benefit from their expertise in electrification, automation, and digitalization to expand our manufacturing,” said Skeleton Technologies Chief Executive Officee Linus Froböse.
Co-CEO and Cofounder Taavi Madiberk claimed that the company’s supercapacitors offer the highest power density in the industry. This opens up the potential for further cooperation with Siemens, especially in the areas of mobility, grid stability and heavy-duty applications.
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