Economic Viability of Second Life Electric Vehicle Batteries Used for Grid Energy Storage
Jason Quinn, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
Second life battery modules can have an imbalanced state of health (SOH) between cells, which can reduce battery safety, life, and depth of discharge. In this presentation, Dr. Jason Quinn, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University, reviewed work that evaluates the economics of a novel Heterogeneous Unifying Battery (HUB) reconditioning system that cycles battery modules to unify cells’ SOH to improve their second life battery performance. This ARPA-E funded work leverages techno-economic analysis to understand the economic viability of reconditioning. Results also include extending the system boundary to include utilization of the batteries in a grid energy storage system with revenue targets generated for the system to be competitive in current markets.