IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v93y2012icp288-295.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental consequences of the use of batteries in low carbon systems: The impact of battery production

Author

Listed:
  • McManus, M.C.

Abstract

Adoption of small scale micro-generation is sometimes coupled with the use of batteries in order to overcome daily variability in the supply and demand of energy. For example, photovoltaic cells and small wind turbines can be coupled with energy storage systems such as batteries. When used effectively with renewable energy production, batteries can increase the versatility of an energy system by providing energy storage that enables the systems to satisfy the highly variable electrical load of an individual dwelling, therefore changing usage patterns on the national grid. A significant shift towards electric or hybrid cars would also increase the number of batteries required. However, batteries can be inefficient and comprise of materials that have high environmental and energy impacts. In addition, some materials, such as lithium, are scarce natural resources. As a result, the overall impact of increasing our reliance on such “sustainable or “low carbon” systems may in fact have an additional detrimental impact.

Suggested Citation

  • McManus, M.C., 2012. "Environmental consequences of the use of batteries in low carbon systems: The impact of battery production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 288-295.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:93:y:2012:i:c:p:288-295
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.12.062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911008580
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.12.062?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Toledo, Olga Moraes & Oliveira Filho, Delly & Diniz, Antônia Sônia Alves Cardoso, 2010. "Distributed photovoltaic generation and energy storage systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 506-511, January.
    2. Paul W. Gruber & Pablo A. Medina & Gregory A. Keoleian & Stephen E. Kesler & Mark P. Everson & Timothy J. Wallington, 2011. "Global Lithium Availability," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(5), pages 760-775, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guandalini, Giulio & Campanari, Stefano & Romano, Matteo C., 2015. "Power-to-gas plants and gas turbines for improved wind energy dispatchability: Energy and economic assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 117-130.
    2. Moroni, Stefano & Antoniucci, Valentina & Bisello, Adriano, 2016. "Energy sprawl, land taking and distributed generation: towards a multi-layered density," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 266-273.
    3. Ma, Chao & Liu, Zhao, 2022. "Water-surface photovoltaics: Performance, utilization, and interactions with water eco-environment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Chen, Yen-Haw & Lu, Su-Ying & Chang, Yung-Ruei & Lee, Ta-Tung & Hu, Ming-Che, 2013. "Economic analysis and optimal energy management models for microgrid systems: A case study in Taiwan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 145-154.
    5. Keon Baek & Woong Ko & Jinho Kim, 2019. "Optimal Scheduling of Distributed Energy Resources in Residential Building under the Demand Response Commitment Contract," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    6. Solomon, A.A. & Faiman, D. & Meron, G., 2012. "Appropriate storage for high-penetration grid-connected photovoltaic plants," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 335-344.
    7. Simon, Bálint & Ziemann, Saskia & Weil, Marcel, 2015. "Potential metal requirement of active materials in lithium-ion battery cells of electric vehicles and its impact on reserves: Focus on Europe," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA), pages 300-310.
    8. Bracco, Stefano & Delfino, Federico & Pampararo, Fabio & Robba, Michela & Rossi, Mansueto, 2013. "The University of Genoa smart polygeneration microgrid test-bed facility: The overall system, the technologies and the research challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 442-459.
    9. Lin, Shunda & Liu, Renlong & Guo, Shenghui, 2022. "High temperature microwave dielectric and thermochemical properties of waste LixMn2O4 battery cathode materials reduced by moso bamboo," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 714-724.
    10. Jinhyeong Park & Munsu Lee & Gunwoo Kim & Seongyun Park & Jonghoon Kim, 2020. "Integrated Approach Based on Dual Extended Kalman Filter and Multivariate Autoregressive Model for Predicting Battery Capacity Using Health Indicator and SOC/SOH," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, April.
    11. Telaretti, E. & Dusonchet, L., 2017. "Stationary battery technologies in the U.S.: Development Trends and prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 380-392.
    12. Paschmann, Martin, 2017. "Leveraging the Benefits of Integrating and Interacting Electric Vehicles and Distributed Energy Resources," EWI Working Papers 2017-11, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    13. Li, Sihui & Peng, Jinqing & Zou, Bin & Li, Bojia & Lu, Chujie & Cao, Jingyu & Luo, Yimo & Ma, Tao, 2021. "Zero energy potential of photovoltaic direct-driven air conditioners with considering the load flexibility of air conditioners," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    14. Kim, Junbeum & Guillaume, Bertrand & Chung, Jinwook & Hwang, Yongwoo, 2015. "Critical and precious materials consumption and requirement in wind energy system in the EU 27," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 327-334.
    15. Furuoka, Fumitaka, 2017. "Renewable electricity consumption and economic development: New findings from the Baltic countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 450-463.
    16. Wu, Qiyan & Zhang, Xiaoling & Sun, Jingwei & Ma, Zhifei & Zhou, Chen, 2016. "Locked post-fossil consumption of urban decentralized solar photovoltaic energy: A case study of an on-grid photovoltaic power supply community in Nanjing, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1-11.
    17. Weimer, Lucas & Braun, Tobias & Hemdt, Ansgar vom, 2019. "Design of a systematic value chain for lithium-ion batteries from the raw material perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Yuqing Yang & Stephen Bremner & Chris Menictas & Merlinde Kay, 2019. "A Mixed Receding Horizon Control Strategy for Battery Energy Storage System Scheduling in a Hybrid PV and Wind Power Plant with Different Forecast Techniques," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-25, June.
    19. Pihl, Erik & Kushnir, Duncan & Sandén, Björn & Johnsson, Filip, 2012. "Material constraints for concentrating solar thermal power," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 944-954.
    20. Sverdrup, Harald Ulrik, 2016. "Modelling global extraction, supply, price and depletion of the extractable geological resources with the LITHIUM model," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 112-129.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:93:y:2012:i:c:p:288-295. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.