“Reinventing Electric Car Batteries: How Solar Power is Giving Them a Second Life”
B2U Storage Solutions’ Sierra facility in Lancaster, California. Photo courtesy of B2U Storage Solutions
A California energy startup has converted more than a thousand electric vehicle (EV) batteries into solar power storage pods in an intriguing attempt to prove an alternative to traditional recycling.
Why it matters: Electric cars are cleaner than their gas-guzzling counterparts, but their batteries take a significant environmental toll in the form of mining and manufacturing.
- Reusing old EV batteries can maximize their lifespan, getting more value out of each battery produced.
- Energy storage, meanwhile, can help alleviate solar energy’s intermittency problem — that is, batteries can store solar energy that can be used when the sun isn’t shining.
Driving the news: B2U Storage Solutions’ Sierra facility has achieved 25 MWh of solar storage capacity using second-life EV batteries from Honda and Nissan, the company announced Tuesday.
- During the day, the Lancaster, California facility’s batteries are recharged by nearby solar panels. The company then sells power back to the grid at night, when solar power tariffs are higher.
- The facility generated more than $1 million in sales last year, the company says.
The Intrigue: B2U’s major breakthrough is a proprietary plug-and-play technology that leverages existing battery pack management systems.
- That, says co-founder and president Freeman Hall, “virtually eliminates repurposing costs” and makes the company’s technology “a very pragmatic operation as we move forward.”
What you say: Recycled EV batteries make good solar storage, in part because the work is much less stressful compared to powering a car, Hall says.
- “The current we apply isn’t even a tenth of what they’re rated for, and we’re not driving them all the way to the top or bottom end relative to their voltage rating.”
- That should translate into a long second life.
Reality check: 25 MWh is not huge – the largest solar storage systems in the world advertise with hundreds of MWh.
Yes but: The purpose of B2U’s Sierra installation is simply to demonstrate that second-life EV batteries can be used for solar storage in a worthwhile manner.
- “Because we’ve built this track record over time, got this cycle history, got this dataset, demonstrated efficacy, we’re in a better position to scale as the number of batteries increases in the future,” Hall says.
In the meantime: Battery recycling companies like Redwood Materials and Lithion are also gaining momentum.
What we observe: Whether there are other use cases.
- Automakers could explore similar technologies to decarbonize their production lines, while airports and airlines are also interested in small on-site energy storage, Axios’ Joann Muller reported.
What’s next: As early electric vehicle owners upgrade to newer models, the available supply of used batteries is expected to skyrocket – and many could be converted into alternative energy storage solutions.
go deeper: Energy storage is beginning to compete with new transmission
Source: www.axios.com
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