Capacitors and supercapacitors: Overview
Storage that charges in seconds and lasts a million cycles
What this tile covers Devices that store charge in an electric field: very fast and very long-lived. Share of use <.01% share of world stored energy (2026)Share of the world's stored energy (energy capacity held, TWh, latest year 2019 to 2026) across the forms with figures, about 22,551 TWh; fuel stocks dominate. Battery and other stores count capacity, not state of charge (calculated) The largest grid system, the 25 MW supercapacitor section at Jiayuguan, holds 60 seconds of output, about 0.4 MWh. Vehicle and industrial units are not counted. Effectively zero. Source: China switches on world's first GWh-scale supercapacitor-energy storage project, pv magazine.
Key facts
| Duration | Seconds to minutes |
| Chain | Electrical → electric field → electrical |
Included from the reference tables
- Capacitors
- Supercapacitors and ultracapacitors
- Lithium-ion capacitors
Linked to the material world
AC Activated carbonAlso in Electrical and system
SMES Superconducting magnetic storageV2G Demand response and vehicle-to-gridNR Natural reservoirsExplore paths from here
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