About the environmental and economic performance of different battery technologies for stationary energy storage

<p>J F Peters, M Baumann and M Weil</p>

About the environmental and economic performance of different battery technologies for stationary energy storage

J F Peters, M Baumann and M Weil

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

: J Nucl Ene Sci Power Generat Technol

Abstract

Energy storage is becoming increasingly important for future electricity systems, and batteries are considered as one of the key technologies for this purpose. However, their production is cost- and greenhouse-gas intensive and continuous efforts are made in order to decrease their price and carbon footprint. Furthermore, different battery technologies are available, each with its specific (dis-) advantages. We use a combination of life cycle assessment, Monte-Carlo simulation and size optimization to determine lifecycle costs and greenhouse gas emissions of different battery technologies in stationary applications. Different application cases with dynamic load profiles are considered in order to point out the importance of choosing the appropriate battery for a given application. The size optimization determines the best trade-off between battery oversizing and increased battery replacements under economic aspects. It turns out that battery life is a determining factor for cost and carbon emissions. This is not only due to the amount of battery replacements required, but also due to oversizing needed for battery types with low cycle lives in order to reduce degradation effects. Most lithium-ion batteries, but also the sodium nickel chloride battery show a good performance in all assessed application cases, while valve regulated lead acid batteries seem to be less recommendable due to low cycle life and low charge-discharge efficiency. For redox flow batteries, a high dependency on the desired application field can be pointed out.