The idea that magnets contain some "power source" powering their effect doesn't seem supported, and I would say is a myth, but a piece of ferromagnetic material might have a particular structure that the magnetic moments like to take within its crystalline structure, and magnetizing it might force those moments to take a higher energy orientation (one with local magnetic "conflicts", but kept stable by other forces). So work has been performed to force magnetic moments into a higher energy state, storing energy. If the structure was aggravated in a way that allowed the magnetic moments to overcome these forces and "snap" into a more preferred position, such energy could be released. Is this what you were referring to here?:
Divide By Zero said:
Magnets can store some energy, but like a capacitor, it is very small compared to the battery or other chemical source.'
A battery with a loop of wire (coil) can make a very strong magnet for some time until it is depleted.
It takes X energy to create a magnetic field. The magnetic field doesn't do any work, that's why it is called static. It's like a string holding up a weight, or a spring stretched or compressed. It's potential energy. What does the work in motors/etc is the changing magnetic field, which is a constant shifting of the magnetic flux back and forth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferromagnetism#Magnetized_materials said:
Magnetized materials
Thus, a piece of iron in its lowest energy state ("unmagnetized") generally has little or no net magnetic field. However, if it is placed in a strong enough external magnetic field, the domain walls will move, reorienting the domains so more of the dipoles are aligned with the external field. The domains will remain aligned when the external field is removed, creating a magnetic field of their own extending into the space around the material, thus creating a "permanent" magnet. The domains do not go back to their original minimum energy configuration when the field is removed because the domain walls tend to become 'pinned' or 'snagged' on defects in the crystal lattice, preserving their parallel orientation. This is shown by the Barkhausen effect: as the magnetizing field is changed, the magnetization changes in thousands of tiny discontinuous jumps as the domain walls suddenly "snap" past defects.
The Wikipedia quote in my other post claims, "If all the dipoles in a piece of ferromagnetic material are aligned parallel, it creates a large magnetic field extending into the space around it.
This contains a lot of magnetostatic energy." Is the energy the article is calling "a lot" the same as the the energy you are referring to as "very small compared to the battery or other chemical source"? It certainly wouldn't surprise me if the amount of energy is too small to be very concerned with for powering things, yet I find it curious that this isn't more well known, if it is true.