California Center for Sustainable Energy

CCSE to lead study on reusing electric vehicle batteries

With potentially hundreds of thousands of new electric vehicles driving onto America’s highways within the next decade, environmental questions arise about what to do with all of the high-performance lithium batteries after they run down. While processes for recycling them are established, a new study spearheaded by CCSE will examine how to extend the batteries’ usefulness in smart grid energy applications.

CCSE, along with partners San Diego Gas and Electric, AeroVironment Inc. and Flux Power Advanced Energy Systems, were awarded a $992,000 research grant from the University of California, Davis to design the best method of repurposing spent plug-in electric vehicle ( PEV) batteries as electric storage devices for household use. This means they could displace fossil fuels from transportation and later provide some storage for energy systems, according to Mike Ferry, CCSE’s transportation program manager and principal investigator for the study.

“Even after the end of usable battery life in the vehicle, the batteries will retain 70 to 80 percent of their residual capacity and be fully capable of being utilized for stationary energy usage and other smart grid applications,” Ferry said. “A viable secondary market for advanced automotive batteries could cut initial battery costs by spreading the cost over its entire useful lifetime.”

The study will evaluate three different types of PEV batteries at test sites that will allow SDG&E to remotely charge and discharge them in response to simulated and real grid conditions. They will also determine if specific battery chemistry or a particular battery management system is superior for overall lifetime battery value. The research project will be overseen by the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.

So the battery that saves you thousands of gallons of gasoline or diesel over the life of your vehicle may live on to help lower your household electricity costs and charge the national power grid. Best of all, the battery doesn’t have to go straight from your car to recycling.

For information about rebates for certain electric and PEVs under the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project

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