Repurposing EV battery packs and modules into BESS obviously has environmental benefits, but challenges around pricing, performance and safety remain, panellists at an industry event in London said last week.
Augmentation and end-of-life disposal look set to grow in significance in the next few years in the US, with nearly 1.5GW/3GWh of BESS projects now four years old or more.
While contractual parties are rarely ironing out end-of-life provisions for BESS, those that do are keeping their options open with the future value of degraded batteries far from clear, a UK-based lawyer said.
A second life energy storage assembly plant has opened in Germany, amidst a rapid fall in battery prices which could threaten the economics of repurposing EV batteries into stationary units.
The European Union’s new Batteries Regulation will be a driver of change in how the energy storage system industry thinks about procurement and managing batteries at the end of life.
The US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office (LPO) is continuing to work with battery recycling firm Li-Cycle on its loan application, a spokesperson told Energy-Storage.news, after Republican lawmakers questioned the LPO director’s role in granting the loan to the firm.
It will be in the interests of more or less everybody involved in the “broader lithium-ion battery supply chain” to establish effective recycling ecosystems, according to an analyst with IHS Markit.
