To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of ultracapacitors as a power source for road vehicles. (204117)

The Department has made no assessment of the effectiveness of ultracapacitors as a power source for road vehicles. However, a pre-competitive research project on development of super capacitors as a means of energy storage for hybrid vehicles, entitled ‘SuperC’, was funded as part of the Foresight Vehicle programme, and concluded in 2002. Details of the project can be found on the Department for Transport website at:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/rmd/proiect.asp?intProjectID-7978.

It is now for project partners to seek commercial applications for any resulting technologies.