Supercaps and solar for outer planet missions Options

[orbitaldescent]

Hello UMSF! I've been a reader for some time but am a first time poster this evening.

Last month, I read a few articles concerning a new capacitor technology that was invented using graphene. (Graphene being a 1-atom thickness sheet of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal formation.) At UCLA they appear to have made capacitors with this stuff that will fully charge in seconds. There are many articles available but most of the research papers are behind paywalls and I haven't been able to read them. On sciencedaily, I read that these capacitors could be integrated into solar panels to greatly increase their efficiency. The lattice component is demonstrably cheap and potentially anybody can make them using the LightScribe function on their consumer DVD-RW drives.

Here is a link to the article: New Technique Scales Up Production of Graphene Micro-Supercapacitors

I was very excited to read this. I instantly thought of how it might be useful on probes, and in particular, probes bound for the ice giants or Kuiper belt. My understanding was that we have sent few probes to Uranus or Neptune because the RTG requirement makes them very costly. I frequently think on the successes of the Cassini mission and all of the interesting things we've witnessed at Saturn just by having an orbiter there. What wonders have we been missing at Uranus and Neptune? Might this capacitor technology make the ice giants accessible for a Discovery-sized budget?

I'm by no means an expert on electrical engineering or solar energy, so I'm unsure if even with greatly improved panel efficiency there would be enough energy to power the instrumentation and temperature control systems. I wanted to reach out to this community and maybe get your opinions.