Making better use of previous electrical car (EV) batteries might significantly assist scale back waste and stabilise the ability grid within the shift in the direction of renewable energy, the German Renewable Vitality Company (AEE) stated in an evaluation.
So-called second-life batteries could possibly be taken from EVs as soon as they drop beneath 80 % of their preliminary capability, a threshold that makes them troublesome to make use of for transport functions however nonetheless permits them to serve properly as stationary energy storage items, the AEE stated.
This may not solely extend every battery’s life cycle, however might additionally assist save a part of the 1.4 % of renewable energy produced in Germany in 2022 that needed to be capped as a result of inadequate grid capability.
“We merely can not afford it as a society to let go off renewable electrical energy on this approach,” AEE head Robert Brandt stated. Increasing the grid to soak up extra renewable energy will likely be indispensable, Brandt stated.
Nevertheless, extra renewable energy could possibly be used for charging electrical automobiles or heating whether it is saved in second-life batteries at any time when it’s out there. Municipalities might use large-scale options based mostly on utilizing previous batteries and combine these into their grid planning, the company stated.
Furthermore, they could possibly be used as emergency storage items for crucial infrastructure, together with hospitals, hearth departments or sewage crops.
“Reusing batteries that already served in EVs gives a sustainable possibility for saving extreme power and use it throughout occasions of excessive demand,” Brandt argued. As well as, this measure might additionally assist scale back the necessity for brand new supplies for battery manufacturing.
Rising demand for e-cars has triggered rising issues about their batteries’ environmental and human prices. Scaling up reuse and recycling may even be key to creating the shift to low-emission mobility really sustainable, specialists agree.
On the similar time, Germany is in want of quickly increasing its storage capacities for renewable energy to ease the burden on lagging grid growth and allow the nation to bridge durations of low renewable energy output.
Clear Vitality Wire. Reproduced with permission.