After beavering away in his Somerset West workshop for seven years, electrician and inventor Jan Human has come up with an invention that he believes will revolutionise energy usage, cut climate-changing carbon emissions and give a major boost to the use of renewable energy.

Breakthrough: Jan Human of Somerset West shows his invention, the hybrid battery, which can charge and discharge simultaneously. Photo: Sophia Stander, Cape Times

After beavering away in his Somerset West workshop for seven years, electrician and inventor Jan Human has come up with an invention that he believes will revolutionise energy usage, cut climate-changing carbon emissions and give a major boost to the use of renewable energy.

Breakthrough: Jan Human of Somerset West shows his invention, the hybrid battery, which can charge and discharge simultaneously. Photo: Sophia Stander, Cape Times His invention is a hybrid battery which can charge and discharge simultaneously, and which cuts energy use by up to 27 percent. It can be linked up to Eskom, solar or wind power at the same time. Because there is less resistance in his battery than in a conventional one, you save energy using power from any of the sources.

He has patented his invention, and now hopes investors will commercialise the battery.

"The principle can be adapted for any kind of battery, small ones like cellphones and laptops, or it can by used by industry and even Eskom, both as back-up or to power their power stations. The mines and power stations have rugby fields of conventional batteries for back-up. It can also be used for vehicles.

'It can charge and discharge at the same time'

"If you link it up to solar or wind energy, you can have energy 100 percent carbon-free," Human said.

The novel aspect of Human's battery is that he found a new "pathway" in the battery which allows it to charge and discharge at the same time.

"When a conventional battery is discharging, say to power a light, it cannot store energy at the same time. It's impossible. My battery does that. You can use wind and solar to charge my battery at the same time it is discharging," Human said.

He had a bank of 18 batteries, each with a 1 000 amp-hour capacity. Apart from his gas stove, these 18 batteries can supply power for everything else in his house for a week, without charging them, only using the solar energy stored in them from his solar panels.

"When you use electricity, you need pressure from the source, which is called electro motor force or EMF. With my battery, I need less EMF, so that is where the 27 percent saving comes in," he explains.

Human says if we are to avoid the worst of climate change, the only solution is wind and solar power. Using his batteries, a household could become 100 percent carbon free, and 100 percent free of Eskom power.

When asked for comment, UCT academics dismissed Human's claims, but Gerhard Ebersohn, an electrical engineer at the University of Pretoria, said it was "definitely a new concept".

"We have nothing like that and it sounds very promising, but one needs to see hard evidence first to see if it is a breakthrough. The biggest problem with renewable energy is storage and energy efficiency. He is sending me information and we're going to look into it," Ebersohn said.

• This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Times on March 12, 2007