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While car makers continue to struggle in the electric car race, some have wondered where the batteries will end up when they reach the end of their automotive life? Merely dumping the battery in some type of landfill will not help the environment, and it will certainly not appeal to car manufacturers or customers. To tackle this problem, several major car makers in the electric car race have teamed up with electricity and energy knowledgeable companies to plan ways to recycle and reuse outdated electric car batteries and their energy.
General Motors has announced that it will work with Swiss company ABB, a leader in energy and automation technology and the world’s largest supplier of power grid systems, to develop a reuse plan for Chevrolet Volt batteries. . The companies will develop several pilot projects and test 16-kWh Volta Li-ion batteries to see how second-life automotive batteries can be used to provide electricity storage systems. During pilot projects, companies will study renewable energy storage, grid load management, community backup power, and time management.
According to GM’s electrical systems executive Micky Bly, “the Volt’s battery will have considerable capacity to store electricity, even after its automotive life.” This means that after the eight-year or 100,000-mile warranty offered on the Volt, the battery will still have energy that can be used for other purposes if the car battery is recycled. Therefore, the ultimate goal of GM in partnership with ABB is to find a cost effective solution that will optimize the full life cycle of the battery and improve the efficiency of the national electricity grid.
Another car manufacturer that has started exploring recycling options for electric batteries is Nissan. Nissan has entered into a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation to conduct research on spent lithium-ion batteries. A joint venture called 4R Energy aims to reuse, resell, refurbish and recycle the electric batteries that power the Nissan Leaf.
The company is expected to conduct demonstration tests and conduct a commercialization study as it works to develop its lithium-ion battery reuse business.
Finally, Californian electric car maker Tesla Motors launched a research project with SolarCity, the national leader in solar design and installation, and the University of California, Berkeley, to explore the possibility of obsolete electric car batteries. Trio is developing a system that will combine Tesla’s electric car battery system with the SolarCity monitoring platform to produce an advanced interactive photovoltaic (PV) system and stationary energy storage that can be installed in buildings. The idea is that the created battery stores will accumulate excess PV energy that the company can use, rather than using power plants with higher emissions.
So, while the electric car race continues, it looks like General Motors, Nissan and Tesla Motors will be competing in the electric car race as well. With ideas as big as renewable energy storage, smart grids and back-up power for buildings, who knows where the second life of electric car batteries will end.
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Source by Albert Hunter