Second Life for Old Electric-Car Batteries

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Engineers are thinking outside of the box and finding a new use for spent electric car batteries. General Motors and energy technology company ABB will be developing a system combining degraded electric car batteries into a package unit for use in the nation’s electrical grid. Recycling green energy products to reduce electrical use is a very win-win situation. :cool:

Of course, because electric cars like the Volt and the Leaf are new to the market, there will not be a large supply of spent electric-car batteries for some time to come.
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For a minute there, I thought "Second Life for Old Electric-Car Batteries" meant that there was some strange way that Second Life was going to harvest old batteries or that old batteries were going to start playing Second Life. :eek:

Anyway, its great that they can just put old batteries to use for another ten years after they don't work in a car.
 
a win-win huh?

Well, the car companies can sell the batteries to the grid companies so that's a win for them. extra revenue for batteries already paid for.

The grid companies can use the batteries to improve electricity delivery and smart grid. there's another win there. cheaper than new batteries I'm sure.

the consumer will not see a drop in the price of electric cars anytime soon as the car companies keep the profits from the resale of batteries and the grid companies won't lower the price of electricity.

it seems more and more these days when you here the phrase win-win it is only ever between companies and never includes the consumer lest they say win-win-lose.
 
SkribbelKat said:
For a minute there, I thought "Second Life for Old Electric-Car Batteries" meant that there was some strange way that Second Life was going to harvest old batteries or that old batteries were going to start playing Second Life. :eek:

Anyway, its great that they can just put old batteries to use for another ten years after they don't work in a car.
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Oddly enough, I thought the same thing.
 
I saw a senior design presentation at WMU last spring about this tech. The group had designed a simple battery protection system that would allow grid connection (they did it on a much smaller scale with A123 batteries). In theory they were set up to use any sort of lithium batteries...
 
SkribbelKat said:
For a minute there, I thought "Second Life for Old Electric-Car Batteries" meant that there was some strange way that Second Life was going to harvest old batteries or that old batteries were going to start playing Second Life. :eek:

Anyway, its great that they can just put old batteries to use for another ten years after they don't work in a car.
Click to expand...

Wow I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking along these lines.
 
SkribbelKat said:
I wonder if it can handle 1.21 jiggawatts.
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Well shoot, here I thought a second life for an old car battery was using one as a boat anchor.
 
Zoomer said:
It doesn't reduce electric use. It will, however, flatten usage peaks.
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or production peaks

one of the main problems with renewable sources is the unpredictable and variable output
 
The Gonz said:
a win-win huh?

Well, the car companies can sell the batteries to the grid companies so that's a win for them. extra revenue for batteries already paid for.

The grid companies can use the batteries to improve electricity delivery and smart grid. there's another win there. cheaper than new batteries I'm sure.

the consumer will not see a drop in the price of electric cars anytime soon as the car companies keep the profits from the resale of batteries and the grid companies won't lower the price of electricity.

it seems more and more these days when you here the phrase win-win it is only ever between companies and never includes the consumer lest they say win-win-lose.
Click to expand...
Car companies will keep the profits because they love the fact their too expensive electric cars don't sell in any significant number.
 
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