Economic and Environmental Feasibility of Second-Life Lithium-Ion Batteries as Fast-Charging Energy Storage

Abstract

Energy storage can reduce peak power consumption from the electricity grid and therefore, the cost for fast charging electric vehicles (EVs). It can also enable EV charging in areas where grid limitations would otherwise preclude it. To address both the need for a fast charging infrastructure as well as management of end-of-life EV batteries, second life battery (SLB)-based energy storage is proposed for EV fast charging systems. The electricity grid-based fast charging configuration was compared to lithium-ion SLB-based configurations in terms of economic cost and life cycle environmental impacts in five U.S. cities. Compared to using new batteries, SLBs reduced the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) by 12-41% and the global warming potential (GWP) by 7-77%. Photovoltaics along with SLBs reduced the use of grid electricity and provided higher GWP and cumulative energy demand (CED) reduction compared to only using SLBs. It was seen that the configuration LCOE was sensitive to SLB cost, lifetime, efficiency, and discount rate, whereas the GWP and CED were affected by SLB lifetime, efficiency and the required enclosure materials. Solar insolation and electricity pricing structures were key in determining the configuration which was economically and environmentally suitable for a location.