EV batteries old & new could be a solution to grid storage (Anthropocene)

A new study suggests vehicle-to-grid technology and reused old EV batteries could meet all of the EU’s need for battery storage—and then some.

Decarbonizing society will require massive amounts of battery storage, both to power electric vehicles (EVs) and to smooth out the variability of renewable sources of electricity like wind and solar. A new analysis suggests that EV batteries could do double duty and serve both purposes.

Batteries require raw materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt that are only found in specific parts of the world. “The sourcing of these materials comes of course with related environmental impacts and geopolitical risks, and so it becomes crucially important that we make the most efficient use of the materials we have already produced,” says study team member Fernando Aguilar Lopez, who conducted the work as a doctoral student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

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