This is one of four blogs in a series examining current challenges and opportunities for recycling of clean energy technologies. Please see the introductory post, as well as other entries on solar panels and wind turbines. Special thanks to Jessica Garcia, UCS’s Summer 2020 Midwest Clean Energy Policy Fellow, for research support and co-authoring these posts.
Lithium-ion batteries dominate the energy storage scene
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries might be known to everyday consumers as the rechargeable batteries which power our cellphones, cameras, and even toothbrushes. Apart from storing energy for small devices, Li-ion batteries are now being used at a much larger scale to store energy for electric vehicles (EVs) and as storage for renewable energy systems like wind and especially solar.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports that prices for battery packs used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems have fallen 87% from 2010–2019, much faster than expected. As the prices have fallen, battery usage has risen.
So have the conversations on what can and should be done with Li-ion batteries when they reach the end-of-use stage. Here we will focus on recycling of lithium-ion batteries from energy storage systems, but for more information on increasing possibilities for second-life uses of EV batteries, see our former colleague Hanjiro Ambrose’s blog and podcast episode.
As a key energy storage technology, batteries are important for incorporating higher amounts of wind and solar power on the grid.
Lithium-ion batteries aren’t the only kind of grid-scale batteries (others include redox flow and newer zinc-hybrid batteries), but they account for the majority. The reason for Li-ion battery storage dominance is that they are lightweight and have high energy density (energy stored per unit of volume or mass).
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