Han Cui, Patrick Luk, Chao Long
School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield, United Kingdom
The increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has led to large numbers of retired EV batteries, raising significant environmental and economic concerns. This study aims to ease these concerns by exploring the potential second-life applications of EV batteries, particularly for stationary energy storage. We propose a techno-economic model to analyze the feasibility of using second-life batteries (SLBs) for stationary energy storage in community microgrids with renewable energy resources as well as for load frequency control of ancillary services. This model evaluates the economic residual value against the remaining life cycles of the EV batteries across different second-life applications. Our findings suggest that among all the proposed stationary storage applications, using SLBs for load frequency control of ancillary services is the most economically feasible and beneficial second-life application, followed by their use in community microgrids under an optimization-based control method. The proposed techno-economic model offers valuable insights to stakeholders, such as EV manufacturers and drivers, enabling informed decision-making regarding the second-life use of EV batteries.
Keywords: electric vehicle (EV), stationary energy storage, second life battery (SLB), techno-economic mode
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