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EV Batteries Could Retire to Solar Farms
- callalex 3y agoThey don’t mention anything about rates of fire and how they suppress those fires (especially important in sunny rural California). Are they decommissioning packs before their absolute end of life to reduce this risk or are they trying to squeeze every last drop out of them?
- Terr_ 3y agoIt's like that old trope [0] about the family dog retiring to a farm, except (hopefully) nobody is quite that emotionally-invested in their batteries. [0] Warning: Time-wasting infinite wiki https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DogGotSentToAFarm https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DogGotSentToAFar...
- mensetmanusman 3y agowould be great if the capital value is very well understood and you could pre-sell the asset to reduce upfront EV cost :)
- TheLoafOfBread 3y agoNo they won't because older battery is, the higher probability of fire - see lithium dendrites https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/lithium-dendrite https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/lithium-dendr...
- toomuchtodo 3y agohttps://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/how-a-company-turned-used-nissan-leaf-ev-batteries-into-moneymakers https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/how-a-company... https://www.marketplace.org/2023/07/14/old-ev-batteries-store-solar-power-california-desert/ https://www.marketplace.org/2023/07/14/old-ev-batteries-stor... https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi7633 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi7633 https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/14/6/161 https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/14/6/161
- TheLoafOfBread 3y agoWhich does not invalidate what I wrote, because nobody is going to insure a building partially made from unstable trash with unknown history, which can easily catch fire on its own + it will be considered dangerous working condition for anyone who will be working there because they will be working with essentially explosives which can go off on its own.
- ProllyInfamous 3y agoGod, if you only knew... even LiFePO4 is still dangerous.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoMy point was what you wrote was very simple and does not account for nuance. Assuming robust validation of pack modules before reprovisioning as stationary storage, adequate segregation and fire walling within physical enclosures, and fire suppression systems, EOL lithium chemistry pack modules repurposed for stationary storage might be cost effective vs shipping those modules for processing at someplace like Redwood Materials. > because nobody is going to insure a building partially made from unstable trash with unknown history, which can easily catch fire on its own + it will be considered dangerous working condition for anyone who will be working there because they will be working with essentially explosives which can go off on its own. My links directly contradict your point that these systems are being built with repurposed modules. There is no building. These facilities are standing alone on their own land on top of concrete pads. The only risk is to the facility itself unless sited in a dense urban area, and air quality depending on how close you are to places where humans dwell downwind. If there is a fire, because there occasionally is anyway with utility scale storage [1], fire suppression will kick in, the system will isolate itself, and the fire dept is going to roll up (like they do for other energy system events, like natural gas leaks that are potentially explosive [2]). There is always risk, it is how you measure and manage the risk, your appetite for it, etc. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=battery+storage+fire https://www.google.com/search?q=battery+storage+fire [2] https://www.fema.gov/fr/case-study/emerging-hazards-battery-energy-storage-system-fires https://www.fema.gov/fr/case-study/emerging-hazards-battery-...
- wilg 3y agoAlso works indirectly, because these batteries are like 95%+ recyclable into new batteries.