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Stanford scientists calculate the carbon footprint of grid-scale battery technologies
Date:3/8/2013

technology should last several decades," he said. "Otherwise, you'll have to acquire more materials, rebuild the technology and transport it. All of those things cost energy. So the longer it lasts, the less energy it will consume over time as a cost to society."

To quantify the long-term energetic costs, Barnhart and Benson came up with a new mathematical formula they dubbed ESOI, or energy stored on investment. "ESOI is the amount of energy that can be stored by a technology, divided by the amount of energy required to build that technology," Barnhart said. "The higher the ESOI value, the better the storage technology is energetically."

When Barnhart crunched the numbers, the results were clear. "We determined that a pumped hydro facility has an ESOI value of 210," he said. "That means it can store 210 times more energy over its lifetime than the amount of energy that was required to build it."

The five battery technologies fared much worse. Lithium-ion batteries were the best performers, with an ESOI value of 10. Lead-acid batteries had an ESOI value of 2, the lowest in the study. "That means a conventional lead-acid battery can only store twice as much energy as was needed to build it," Barnhart said. "So using the kind of lead-acid batteries available today to provide storage for the worldwide power grid is impractical."

Improved cycle life

The best way to reduce a battery's long-term energetic costs, he said, would be to improve its cycle life that is, increase the number of times the battery can charge and discharge energy over its lifetime. "Pumped hydro storage can achieve more than 25,000 cycles," Barnhart said. "That means it can deliver clean energy on demand for 30 years or more. It would be fantastic if batteries could achieve the same cycle life."

None of the conventional battery technologies featured in the study has reached that level. Lithium-ion is the best at 6,000 cycles, while lead
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Contact: Mark Shwartz
mshwartz@stanford.edu
650-723-9296
Stanford University
Source:Eurekalert  

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