Let's Use Electric Vehicle Waste Batteries for Solar ESS! ... UNIST Researchers Announce Economic Feasibility Study Results

Conceptual diagram of the strategy to reuse waste batteries in solar power generation ESS.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Dooyul] UNIST has announced research results showing that applying electric vehicle waste batteries to solar power generation facilities is economically viable.

A research team led by Professor Lim Hangwon of the Carbon Neutral Graduate School and the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST recently analyzed the "economic feasibility of reusing waste batteries" and published their findings in the November issue of the international journal Journal of Cleaner Production.

The main content includes the economic feasibility of applying waste batteries to energy storage systems (ESS) for solar power generation and the proposal of optimal prices for waste batteries.

This study was based on a "3 MWh ESS storing electricity generated by 1 MW (megawatt) solar power."

Using this standard, the optimal price was derived by considering "subsidies paid to solar power operators" and "the remaining lifespan of waste batteries." Government subsidies were assumed to range from $0 to $100 per MWh, and the remaining lifespan of waste batteries was categorized as 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years.

The analysis showed that economic feasibility did not appear when subsidies were below $60.

More specifically, when the remaining lifespan of the waste battery was 5 years and the subsidy was $60, the optimal price was estimated at $2,679 per MWh, approximately 3.21 million KRW.

If a subsidy of $100 is provided, the available budget increases slightly, making the optimal price of the waste battery $70,927, about 85.11 million KRW.

Using the same calculation method, when the remaining lifespan was 10 years, the optimal price ranged from $3,786 per MWh (about 4.54 million KRW) to $100,237 (about 120.28 million KRW), and when the remaining lifespan was 20 years, it ranged from $5,747 per MWh (6.89 million KRW) to $122,162 (about 182.59 million KRW).

This analysis also considered the annual solar utilization rate, ESS capacity degradation, and investment payback period. The price of waste batteries increased as the payback period lengthened and subsidies decreased.

(From left) Researcher Gu Ji-won, Researcher Lee Hyun-jun, and Researcher Lim Dong-jun are taking a group photo.

Hyunjun Lee, first author and integrated master's and doctoral course researcher in the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, said, "Building an ESS with the same capacity would require about $250,000, so using waste batteries is much more economical," adding, "Simply recovering and storing electric vehicle waste batteries for reuse is also a good strategy for a circular economy that protects the environment."

Co-corresponding author Professor Yoonseok Choi of the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST said, "This is a good example showing how the characteristics of the field where batteries are reused, battery lifespan, and policy measures should be handled," and added, "It provides a foundation for expanding applications to various fields in the future."

Professor Lim Hangwon said, "'Reuse of waste batteries' is a field expected to become a large global market in the future," and added, "The research is quite meaningful as it derived the optimal price of waste batteries by comprehensively considering technical and economic aspects such as battery lifespan and subsidies."

The research was conducted with support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's funding through the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology's technology innovation project and the customized high-output capacitor performance enhancement technology development project for demand companies.

Professors Yoonseok Choi (left) and Hangwon Lim from the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.