In the latest update of Circular Energy Storage’s data on the lithium-ion battery end-of-life market we conclude the that over 1.2 million tonnes of waste batteries will be recycled in 2030. Although it sounds like a massive number, the recycling industry is in fact well prepared and will most probably fight for the volumes.
This is good news for the energy storage industry, as it is for all other businesses placing lithium-ion batteries on the market. More competition means better prices and hopefully both better service and more efficient processes. The so often quoted “lack of recycling” can be removed from the list of concerns anyone might have when investing in lithium-ion batteries.
So with that in mind for energy storage professionals, what else could possibly be worth to know about a market one will mostly deal with first in five or even ten years?
In fact there are at least three important things which are worth bringing to management’s attention today.
The recycling opportunity
For most European and North American companies recycling is a cost. Often for good reasons. First of all we are used to pay to get all kinds of stuff out of the building and retired batteries are normally no different. The recycling process requires a thorough disassembly of the packs and that special measures are taken for safe transportation. If the value from the recycled material doesn’t cover the costs it’s hard for any player to pay for the batteries, no matter how hard to competition might be.
But recycling of batteries in a 50MWh energy storage plant is very different from recycling of batteries from power tools, e-bikes or even electric cars.
50MWh equals about 250-300 tonnes of battery cells, depending on which chemistry has been used. That’s in fact more lithium-ion batteries than what many large battery collectors ever have had in their warehouses. And they are in one place to which they have been moved as batteries, not waste. To recycle 250 tonnes of batteries today can cost anything between €250,000 to €1 million.
But essentially the material is valuable, at least when it comes to NMC batteries which in fact can yield as much as they might cost users to recycle them. How much of it that’s left on the table comes down to efficiency and customer leverage. Most probably few energy storage companies would be interested in getting into recycling themselves. But there is too much value at stake to not as early as possible sit down with potential recyclers and understand how both parties can save costs and thus increase incentives on both sides. A good example of this is how French energy company Engie partnered with the large material producer and recycler Umicore and placed an energy storage system on Umicore’s premises. When the batteries finally die they need to go nowhere.
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