Energy represents 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And although the transition from fossil fuels to renewables is on its way, it is not a „silver bullet“ solution as renewables standing on their own show lower efficiency vs. fossils. Their efficiency increases significantly if used in combination with energy storage solutions – the rechargeable batteries. Batteries are changing everything. They power electric vehicles, smartphones or billions of IoT modules. Batteries can be as big as a shipping container powering data centers, schools, hospitals, etc. With prices for batteries dropping faster than expected - they will play a significant role in the energy markets of the future. It will move from niche uses to broader ones such as supporting renewables integration storing all decarbonized electricity. Although the renewable batteries represent tremendous added value, if not managed well, they also impose many risks, among which the most significant ones are the scarcity of natural resources needed to make the battery, missing out on the 2nd life application and a hazard to environment.
Already, on a global basis, approximately 50 million tons of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) are produced annually, of which only 20% is formally recycled. With the IoT market being on the brink of explosive growth, these figures are to increase exponentially. Without changing our approach, the e-waste will more than double by 2050, to 120 million tons p.a. In this context a few very important questions emerge: how should an energy storage system be operated in order to optimize its charge/discharge performance, effectively manage battery thermodynamics and maximize its lifetime? At which point in time does it make economic sense for the battery to be replaced? Can it be reused so that its remaining operating capacity is efficiently exploited?
Hence, it is paramount to find a solution that would be able to collect and store relevant data to analyze them and, based on the results, propose a set of recommendations to optimize all key parameters of battery capacity, performance and longevity. The battery life of the electric vehicles’ traction batteries and the IoT devices’ are among the most pressing issues calling for an immediate solution. While the batteries are the most valuable component of a battery-electric car (BEV), they are highly toxic to the environment. With a projected annual production of 20 million electric vehicles and 26 billion available IoT devices by 2025, this represents a fundamental challenge as their batteries will eventually need to find the way into the 2nd life cycle or recycle.
The goal of our overall project (foreseen Phase 2) is to further develop and commercialize BatteryCheck solution that will gather, analyze and produce relevant data and recommendations to optimize all key parameters of energy storage performance and its longevity. BatteryCheck is an intelligent cloud-based proprietary “Battery Analytics as a Service” analytical SW and digital platform monitoring the battery and collecting key performance parameter measurements straight from their Battery Management System (BMS) or a device platform. The data gathered is subject to further mining and analytics with the help of machine learning techniques. Subsequently, gathered from of devices it will form the basis for the BatteryCheck core services: Evotchi, ABEL and BaLiMa. Evotchi, a service watching over battery performance, identifies anomalies within time series of data from BMS and then provides personalized recommendations to users. ABEL (Average Battery End of Life) creates prediction based on AI/ML calculations about the forthcoming end of life of specific battery system. The service will also guarantee that the data will not be manipulated, thus unlocking new market opportunities (including new financing options) for used electric vehicles and energy storage systems in other industrial applications as parties will know the objective condition of the battery. BaLiMa (Battery Lifecycle Management), in turn, will recommend the best moment for repurposing the equipment, i.e. when the battery ceased being a good fit for its primary use scenario but fully capable of taking on secondary life and serving to another purpose. This service will provide recommendation for optimal timing of final disposal of the battery.
