IEC TC 120 has recently published a new standard which looks at how battery-based energy storage systems can use recycled batteries. IEC 62933‑4‑4, aims to “review the possible impacts to the environment resulting from reused batteries and to define the appropriate requirements”.
Various end-of-life (EOL) options are under development, such as recycling and recovery. Recently, stakeholders have become more confident that giving the retired batteries a second life by reusing them in less-demanding applications, such as stationary energy storage, may create new value pools in the energy and transportation sectors.
Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) use batteries, for example lithium-ion batteries, to store electricity at times when supply is higher than demand. They can then later release electricity when it is needed. BESSs are therefore important for “the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy”.
It should be kept clear of combustible material and not used for general storage. Where charging and storage of vehicles and batteries is in an occupied hospital, the charging of vehicles and batteries should be done in an area separated from the remainder of the building by fire-resisting construction.
The time for rapid growth in industrial-scale energy storage is at hand, as countries around the world switch to renewable energies, which are gradually replacing fossil fuels. Batteries are one of the options.
Issues and concerns have also been raised over the recycling of the batteries, once they no longer can fulfil their storage capability, as well as over the sourcing of lithium and cobalt required. Cobalt, especially, is often mined informally, including by children. One of the most important producers of cobalt is the Democratic Republic of Congo.