Supercapacitors: Revolutionizing Energy Storage

1. Introduction

Energy is incredibly important to our daily lives. From 7,323 TWh in 1980 to 23,845 TWh in 2019, global electricity consumption has expanded dramatically in recent decades. According to the World Energy and Climate Statistics - Year Book 2021, worldwide energy usage fell by 1.1% in 2020, the first drop since 2009. The global economy is largely reliant on energy generation, storage, and transportation. The investment in global energy, as per the International Energy Agency, is delineated in Table 1 spanning the years 2015 to 2023. The International Energy Agency asserts that the utilization of non-renewable fossil fuels including gas, oil, and coal has become vital for the generation of energy (Castro-Gutiérrez et al., 2020). Furthermore, it is widely accepted that the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere during the 1950s is largely due to the combustion of fossil fuels, which is driving global climate change (Lazarus & van Asselt, 2018). Population growth, the depletion of fossil fuel reserves, and the harmful effects of greenhouse gases on the ecosystem and climate all pose a severe danger in the future decades. As a result, switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources and ecologically friendly technology is critical for long-term growth (Månberger, 2021). Renewable sources of energy including wind and solar energy, among others, cannot be employed for commercial or residential use since supply interruptions might result in huge losses (Saikia et al., 2020). As a result, the comprehensive approach toward clean energy emerges in modern civilization, as does the necessity to investigate new storage and conversion technologies as the global economy grows (Guan et al., 2019). Energy-storage systems are becoming increasingly important in this respect, and have been hailed as the most promising among numerous renewable energy storage technologies due to their high efficiency, adaptability, and flexibility.