Performance Testing of Adapted Ni-Mh Batteries for Second-Life Use in Amazonian Isolated Microgrid
Abstract
With the expansion of the electric and hybrid vehicle market, due to incentives to tackle the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, a directive should be considered for the disposal of batteries remaining in these vehicles after the end of their service life. A viable solution is to reuse these storage devices with remaining capacity in second-life applications. Although they are no longer useful for their initial purpose, they can be used to form battery banks for off-grid systems that serve remote communities (isolated from the conventional power grid) that suffer from a lack of access to energy. Given this scenario, this study aims to provide an analysis of tests carried out on batteries removed from hybrid vehicles sold in Brazil, in order to promote their second life use, with the aim of enabling their application for connecting the battery bank to a direct current distribution microgrid supplied by photovoltaic energy implemented in a remote community. It has been found that, depending on the storage technology, the energy capacity may be insufficient for second-life applications due to factors such as wear and tear in the original application, time, and storage conditions. However, there are promising technologies for this application.
Keywords
second-life batteries, off-grid systems, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, photovoltaic energy