Similarities and Differences between Supercapacitors and Batteries for Storing Electrical Energy

Abstract

A modern technological society demands the use and storage of energy on a major scale, employing large and small systems for that purpose. Energy stored as potential energy is involved in hydroelectric systems through the hydrostatic “head” of water behind dams; it is also stored in a potential sense in fuels (e.g., coal, oil, and cryogenic hydrogen) and becomes available, albeit with rather poor efficiency, through combustion utilizing steam-piston, steam-turbine, and internal combustion engines of various kinds as energy transduction devices. Energy may also be stored as rotational kinetic energy in flywheels.