Second-hand Lithium Energy Storage

Major automobile makers will soon have megawatt hours of second-hand lithium energy storage in inventory as the demand and penetration for electric vehicles and hybrids pick up globally. With the costs of EVs going down with increasing scale and with government support,  with Bloomberg predicting that 35% of new vehicles sold by 2040 will be EVs or hybrids (which I think is a big underestimate).

Do You Know The Countries Which Have Greatest Number Of Electric Vehicles In The World?

EVs will give rise to a massive second-hand energy storage market as the lithium batteries still have a lot of life left in them even after not having the performance characteristics to serve in the automobile market. One of the biggest uses for second-hand lithium batteries will be in the utility storage market, both behind the meter and in front of the meter.

Some large EV players such as Renault have accumulated a massive amount of second-hand batteries already. They are thinking of deploying them in the electricity grid and they could sell them at a much cheaper price than new batteries. Renault is already evaluating setting up a giant 100 MWH energy storage plant in Germany. This will be the biggest energy storage of its kind in the world and Renault could make substantial money by selling frequency regulation, grid balancing and other ancillary services in the German wholesale energy market.

Other major car companies such as BMW, BYD, Daimler and others will also enter the market soon as millions of EVs every year shed megawatt hours of second-hand lithium batteries. These car makers would soon be competing with electricity utilities in providing ancillary services to the grid. These car makers could also join hands with small startups to provide energy storage services to individual customers in homes as well.