Abstract:

Electric vehicle battery second-life applications are gaining attention as a way to minimize the environmental impact and increase economic profits. With these used batteries, however, the market for stationary energy storage is anticipated to reach saturation soon. Besides the several technical and economic challenges of second-life batteries, this fact promotes exploring other alternatives. This work analyses and compares these possible approaches in terms of battery degradation and economic profit. The results show that for large batteries, intensive Vehicle to Grid does not cause an early retirement of the battery and allows for reducing the underuse of the battery. In addition, Vehicle to Grid provides more economic profit for the same battery size than second-life applications. Nevertheless, only in a few cases does this appear to be more profitable than simply utilizing the battery for driving. Importantly, this study has shown how the assessment of the second-life tends to be too optimistic as a consequence of assuming a fixed End of Life threshold for the batteries.