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Old EV Batteries as Solar Storage Solution [View all]
Old EV Batteries as Solar Storage Solution
<snip>
...The potential of car batteries
One of the ways utilities are looking to store energy on their massive infrastructures is using old hybrid car batteries tied together to create community energy storage (CES). It’s a development being studied right now by a partnership of Nissan North America, the ABB power and technology company, the UK company 4R Energy and investment firm Sumitomo Corporation of America.
Even after the electric car’s battery has served its purpose, it typically can still operate at 70% of its capacity.
Most lithium-ion battery packs that power vehicles such as Nissan’s all-electric car, the LEAF, have an estimated life of about 10 years, just shy of the average age of an automobile these days. But even after the electric car’s battery has served its purpose, it typically can still operate at 70% of its capacity and when you tie a handful of them together, Nissan and ABB think the combined storage will supply a collection of homes with power.
ABB has already demonstrated a prototype modular CES unit using five used Chevrolet Volt batteries. That demonstration unit also used depleted batteries that had reached the end of their useful automotive life, which means only 30% of their life had been used.
“This leaves a tremendous amount of life that can be applied to other applications like powering a structure before the battery is recycled,” Pablo Valencia, GM senior manager of battery lifecycle management in stated in a press release....
<snip>
...The potential of car batteries
One of the ways utilities are looking to store energy on their massive infrastructures is using old hybrid car batteries tied together to create community energy storage (CES). It’s a development being studied right now by a partnership of Nissan North America, the ABB power and technology company, the UK company 4R Energy and investment firm Sumitomo Corporation of America.
Even after the electric car’s battery has served its purpose, it typically can still operate at 70% of its capacity.
Most lithium-ion battery packs that power vehicles such as Nissan’s all-electric car, the LEAF, have an estimated life of about 10 years, just shy of the average age of an automobile these days. But even after the electric car’s battery has served its purpose, it typically can still operate at 70% of its capacity and when you tie a handful of them together, Nissan and ABB think the combined storage will supply a collection of homes with power.
ABB has already demonstrated a prototype modular CES unit using five used Chevrolet Volt batteries. That demonstration unit also used depleted batteries that had reached the end of their useful automotive life, which means only 30% of their life had been used.
“This leaves a tremendous amount of life that can be applied to other applications like powering a structure before the battery is recycled,” Pablo Valencia, GM senior manager of battery lifecycle management in stated in a press release....
ETA: Not sure how to turn off smilies. They are messing up the link at the /colon oh/ so I've broken it. If you want to read the article, put the two sections together.
http://www.solarnovus.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6339: old-ev-batteries-as-solar-storage-solution&catid=38:application-tech-features&Itemid=246
8 replies
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