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JonJackjon t1_j5ccwaz wrote

Yes, they both store energy:

The capacitor stores the energy as an electric field.

The battery provides energy from a chemical reaction.

With today's technology a battery can generate more energy than the capacitor can store.

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ZZ9ZA t1_j5ecx4b wrote

… but provided both are capable of holding a given amount of charge.. the capacitor can discharge much more quickly, often almost instantaneously.

With supercapacitors actually starting to be a thing, there isn’t the huge gulf of capability there used to be.

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JonJackjon t1_j5g1nf3 wrote

I've never measured any delay in a battery. I do agree that batteries have very different discharge characteristics than capacitors.

The capability gap is actually much larger even with super capacitors. Flow batteries make the possibility for huge increases in battery capacity.

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PromptCritical725 t1_j5quftc wrote

Batteries have basically always been able to store more energy than caps. That's what makes supercaps compelling. They store more than caps, but are faster than batteries.

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