Study on Integration of Retired Lithium-Ion Battery With Photovoltaic for Net-Zero Electricity Residential Homes

The behavior of a retired lithium-ion battery (LIB) from its first-life in an electric aircraft (EA) to its second-life in a solar photovoltaic (PV) system for a net-zero electricity residential home is studied. The first part of this study presents the design and sizing of a battery energy storage system (BESS), made from retired LIBs, to store a portion of the PV generation for a typical home in Ohio. The home is connected to the grid, but the net electricity usage from the grid in one year is zero. The purpose of the BESS is to peak shaving, power arbitrage, reduce the home dependency on the grid, and increase the economic benefits. The sizing is determined based on the hourly data of the PV system generation, ambient temperature, irradiation, and home demand electricity. In the second part of this study, the retired LIB degradation rate and its remaining useful life in the BESS are estimated using an adopted empirical LIB model. The model includes the capacity-fade for both first-life and second-life of the LIB under various duty cycles. It is shown that the retired LIB from its first-life is still suitable to be used in the PV grid-tied battery (PVGB) system for another 10 years. The results of this study can potentially reduce the LIB cost for electric vehicles (EVs) and EAs because the retired LIBs from these applications still have value to serve for other applications such as PVGB systems for residential homes.