The Chinese Energy Agency has proposed to ban the use of batteries in disused electric vehicles (EV) for electricity storage on a large scale due to concerns about safety and the lack of appropriate testing and assessment guidelines.
The move may hamper efforts to dispose of the millions of batteries that power the Asian country’s growing fleet of electric cars after they have reached the end of their useful life.
EV cells are typically no longer considered suitable for use in automobiles when their maximum charge drops to 80% of their original capacity. The sector has been looking for ways to reuse discarded batteries for energy storage and other purposes, a process known as cascading use.
But authorities have started curbing such projects since an explosion in an energy storage facility in Beijing in April killed two firefighters, although the results of an investigation into the incident were not made public.
The draft proposals published on Tuesday by China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) for public comment (link in Chinese) would “in principle” prohibit the use of discarded vehicle batteries for “large” energy storage projects, although the terms were not defined.
Projects that have already been built or tendered must be evaluated regularly and monitored more closely, it said.
The impact of the draft rule is likely to be limited, however, as most projects with recycled EV batteries focus on small-scale energy storage and its use in telecom base stations, said an industry insider who refused to be named to speak freely.
Cascading could be a promising way for companies to reduce battery waste and generate revenue from disused cells. However, the sector is struggling to find precise ways to inspect, maintain and reuse the wide variety of discarded cells.
Engineering measures are needed to make up for the amount of energy left in used batteries, said Zhao Guangjin, director of a laboratory for grid waste recycling at State Grid Corp. of China. He added that incomplete operational data for many decommissioned cells makes it difficult to assess their safety, lifespan and adaptability to different scenarios.
The problem is compounded by the fact that battery manufacturers use different specifications, resulting in differences in design, materials, and performance that make it difficult to predict the safety of reused cells, according to a person familiar with the problem at industry leader Contemporary Amperex Technology Co . (300750.SZ).
The NEA’s draft rule comes after east China’s Shandong Province issued a notice last month banning the use of decommissioned EV batteries in cascading use, a move widely viewed in response to the Beijing explosion a month earlier.
The document is open to public comment until July 22nd.
Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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