Battery Recyclability

 

One of the things that you should consider when putting battery storage on your home is whether or not the battery will be recyclable at the end of its life.

Often, one of the reasons that people put solar panels on their house and put in battery storage to collect the excess usage is to protect the environment and reduce the need for coal powered power stations.

This can be counterproductive if you choose a battery that is made from toxic materials or has components that can’t be recycled.

GridEdge’s SoNick battery is 100% recyclable and already has a recycling program in place that accounts for all components at end of life.

One of the reasons that lithium ion batteries are comparatively so cheap up front is because they don’t take all cradle to grave costs into account. There are no end of life disposal costs in the battery price and no health costs for the people in third world countries that mine the lithium or have to dispose of our unrecyclable batteries.

Currently there are no recyclable programs for large Lithium ion energy storage batteries. For companies to take on this responsibility it will need to be economically viable for them. These costs should be taken into account in the purchase price of the batteries and not left for someone else to deal with in a few years’ time.

Lithium ion batteries are a disaster waiting to happen, both for the environment and in terms of safety. Unfortunately companies like Tesla and LG Chem have plenty of money to spend on advertising their products and they conveniently don’t mention that they are not recyclable and post a serious explosion risk if added to landfill, let alone if they fail in operation or are in a house fire that is caused by other means than the battery. Currently, the fire brigade can’t put a lithium ion battery fire out as any means they currently have at their disposal will make the lithium ion battery explode.

Sodium Nickel chloride (SoNick) and Nickel Iron batteries are really the only ones that are really recyclable or original lead acid batteries. Although traditionally lead acid batteries have been recyclable with doping of the plates in the newer lead acid batteries this is not always the case.

If you would like to know more about getting safe, reliable battery storage for your own home, business or micro-grid visit us at http://quantum.GridEdge.com.au

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