25 MWh of grid scale storage- with USED EV batteries?

One major and ongoing concern in the EV and Renewable Energy (wind/solar) world is the issue of what to do with lithium batteries once they reach the end of their ‘useful’ life.

Turns out that the batteries used in EVs are fairly high performance and need to have high charging and discharging capacities. As such, their performance at that levels only lasts a short period of time before they need to be replaced.

But just because they’ve degraded to a point where they aren’t ‘good’ for an EV application does not mean they aren’t ‘good’ for other applications.

Enter this new a new 25MWh grid scale energy storage system in California that uses- used EV batteries.

Essentially, this company has developed software that monitors the battery performance as it charges and discharges and has the ability to take struggling ones off line. The used EV batteries are charged and discharged at a slow rate (much less than that of the demanding EV applications) and can be used for upwards of 10 additional years.

Pretty cool tech. Check it out here:

How Dead EV Batteries are Perfect for Energy Storage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKSmIqGvZR4

Still some issues to work through, but this is extremely promising given the upcoming wave (tsunami?) of used EV batteries we will need to deal with…

And I imagine there might be really impactful downstream effects for the grid as well as individual energy bill payers as this tech promises to bring much cheaper wind and solar power more effectively to market…

That’s all for today folks! Enjoy!

Oh, I almost forgot… Click here to get notified when I release my upcoming book Tucson Solar Insider Desk Guide for Buying Solar.

Be Good!
Curtis