What is the optimized cost for a used battery?: Economic analysis in case of energy storage system as 2nd life of battery

Abstract

An electric vehicle is considered as one of the promising alternative transport due to its eco-friendly zero CO2 emissions. This trend causes a new environmental issue, Li-ion battery waste, and diverse plans for the used battery are suggested for preventing it. A stationary energy system connected to 1 MW photovoltaic was proposed as a repurposing strategy for the used battery. In addition, techno-economic analysis including itemized cost estimation, profitability analysis, and uncertainty analysis, was carried out to provide economic guidelines on what we need for the upcoming used battery era. Further, the optimized purchase cost for the used battery was figured out via a genetic algorithm. A levelized cost of electricity of 0.31 USD kWh-1 was obtained showing the PV cost as the most influential factor. The range of optimized purchase costs was 2,679-70,927, 3,786-100,234, and 5,747-152,162 USD according to 5, 10, and 20 years of the remaining lifetime of the used battery, respectively, and this cost varied depending on the target discounted payback period and subsidy. Finally, the repurposing of the used battery was still infeasible in terms of economic profit since 98.1%, 88.2%, and 75.2% were presented indicating a probability of negative purchase cost for the used battery. Our results show the needs of capital cost expenditure reduction via technological advancement to encourage the repurposing of the used battery.