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Energy stored in a capacitor

Description

Capacitance is the ability of a body to store an electrical charge. Any object that can be electrically charged exhibits capacitance. A common form of energy storage device is a parallel-plate capacitor. The energy stored in a capacitor is equal to the work done to charge it. For a flat-plate capacitor the energy stored is directly proportional to the surface area of the conductor plates and inversely proportional to the separation distance between the plates.

Related formulas

Variables

WstoredEnergy stored in the capacitor (J)
ϵrThe relative static permittivity of the material between the plates (for a vacuum, εr = 1) (dimensionless)
ϵ0electric constant
AThe area of overlap of the two plates (m2)
dThe separation between the plates (m)
VThe voltage (V)