Why don't we use capacitors to store electricity when there is excess wind energy?

Excess electricity produced by wind power cannot be stored with capacitors because the cost is too high and the capacitor energy storage technology is not yet mature. Currently, supercapacitors are still concept products, with a limited range of applications and cost constraints that prevent their widespread use.

Wind energy resources are large in quantity and high quality, and wind energy has outstanding advantages. As a clean energy source, wind power is environmentally friendly and pollution-free. Wind energy production does not harm the environment and is very respectful of ecological development and natural landscapes. Wind power generation has unique advantages in various power generation methods. The construction ofa wind farm can be considered a once and for all success and a huge profit. However, the disadvantages are also obvious. The wind force is unstable and unpredictable, the output voltage fluctuates, and the power produced by the wind turbine is also unstable, which affects the power quality after it is connected to the grid. Voltage fluctuations affect industrial and agricultural production. In order to reduce the negative impact on production and service life after wind power is connected to the grid, wind power generally needs to be equipped with batteries, rectifiers and inverters.

Capacitors used to store electrical energy are called supercapacitors, also called gold capacitors. Gold capacitors are an electrochemical component developed in the 1970s and 1980s to store electrical energy. Unlike batteries, no chemical reactione does not occur during the process of storing electrical energy. Its charging and discharging principle is the same as that of an ordinary capacitor, using two plates to absorb equal amounts of different charges.

The particularity of supercapacitors is that thanks to the porous activated carbon electrode and the structure of the electrolyte, the capacitor produced has a very large capacity and can accommodate a large amount of charge. Compared to conventional batteries, supercapacitors charge extremely quickly and have strong high-current discharge capabilities. However, due to cost constraints and technical reasons, they cannot yet be promoted and used on a large scale. It is therefore impossible to store electrical energy for the production of wind energy.

In summary, wind energy, as a clean and environmentally friendly energy production method,has both advantages and disadvantages. Although supercapacitors have great advantages in electrical energy storage, the technology is not yet mature enough to be widely used, so it cannot be used for energy-efficient storage of wind energy.