One of the gripes about electric car batteries, is they can cost more to recycle than the effort yields. Now, the Straits Times reports new uses for retired electric car batteries that may extend their lives for a decade. Old batteries could spend their golden years grilling sausages and keeping beverages cool in take-outs to cite one example. While we wait for better recycling methods,
Grilling Sausages May Help EV Manufacturers in China
China’s car makers will have to keep old batteries away from landfill from August 2018 according to new regulations. Second-purposing them seems a sensible alternative to dismantling them at break-even or worse. Small retailers will see the sense of charging them when energy is cheap. And then re-using the energy during peak tariff periods.
Bloomberg believes the second use period will involve far more than cooling beverages and grilling sausages though. Because the lithium-ion batteries can also store power for businesses and homes for peak power consumption too.
This will help relieve mounting pressure from 55,000 battery packs coming offline in 2018. We expect these to swell to a mountain of 3.4 million by 2025. The European Union and the United States are also developing strategies to deal with the problem.
Box of Energy Says the Market Will Be Enormous
CEO of Box or Energy Johan Stjernberg is working closely with Volvo Cars and Porsche. “The market will be enormous for second-life applications with storage,” he says. “The logic behind this is the circular economy,” adds Cecile Sobole, program manager for Renault’s EV business.”
We are encouraged by this approach. Because we would be foolish to dismantle electric car batteries at a loss. For as long as they are ideal for storing energy from wind and solar, we have found a better way.
“A lithium-ion battery actually never dies,” experts say. “It’s just like you can take an alkaline battery out of your flashlight and put it into a remote control. Then it’ll still be good enough,” explains Hans Eric Melin, founder of London-based Circular Energy. More food for thought, and more good ideas to come we hope.
Related
China Electric Car Makers to Recycle Old Batteries
Recycling Lithium Batteries: Current Way
Preview Image: CODA officials Discuss the All-Electric Car Battery in 2011
