Old EV batteries repurposed to power California

An American startup is powering California’s electricity grid using 1300 old electric vehicle battery packs.

According to Reuters, B2U Storage Solutions claims its world-first Lancaster facility has up to 25 megawatt-hours of energy storage capacity, and connected to a solar panel array, it earned nearly AU$1.5 million last year by selling stored power back into the grid.

The company bundles the lithium-ion battery packs together, without the need to disassemble, and are housed in a shipping container-sized and thermally-managed storage pod.

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It also claims to reduce grid-scale battery capital costs by around 40 per cent and use EV batteries up to eight years’ old, mostly from former Nissan and Honda models.

Recycling and repurposing EV batteries for a new life or purpose – which contain environmentally harmful materials – is currently being explored across the industry to address sustainability concerns when vehicles are discarded by owners and batteries degrade.

According to a Leiden University study in the Netherlands, batteries become unsuitable for use in EVs when their health drops between 70 to 80 per cent of the original capacity – but are still suitable for electricity storage and delivery.

For reference, all car brands cover their EVs with a dedicated battery warranty, and some promise that it won’t degrade by more than 30 per cent within an eight-year/160,000 kilometre period.

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A Melbourne-based company launched the Infinitev service last year to reuse or recycle end-of-life hybrid and EV batteries, which aims to identify and replace failed components as most vehicles’ battery management systems register a fault when the health drops below 70 per cent.

Meanwhile, a report published by electric car upstarts Polestar and Rivian last week urged the need to have a three-tier global and collaborative approach to stop the automotive industry from exceeding the 1.5-degree celsius global warming target, which is projected to pass it by at least 75 per cent by 2050.

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bidirectional charging is also being trialled in South Australia to help stabilise the electricity grid and help homes or businesses go off-grid by using their EVs as an energy storage solution when not in use.