Tag: batteries

Environment, EV Battery, Industry

Where EV batteries go to die – and be reborn

Battery laboratoryBatteries for electric vehicles have been notoriously difficult to recycle, but growing demand for the rare metals they contain is leading to innovative new ways of retrieving them from used power cells.

As the climate crisis intensifies, the world is electrifying. Countries are increasingly shifting towards renewable sources of energy including solar panels and wind turbines. Homeowners are installing heat pumps in the place of old gas or oil boilers. And drivers are increasingly buying electric vehicles (EVs) powered by batteries.

New battery re-cycling technology is bringing us closer to a circular economy, in which almost nothing is thrown away.

Read more at the BBC >>>

EV Charging, Infrastructure

Our new EV routine – just another mobile battery to recharge

Battery charging with timerWe are only just getting our heads around the realities of EV ownership.

Initial thoughts….  EVs – especially those with smaller batteries – are currently more suited for use as a ‘second car’, for around-town transport. (An expensive second car!)

We live in a regional coastal town in NSW, where there is plenty of 100 km highway driving between towns – and that sort of travel chews through battery capacity.

For us the realistic day-to-day charging option is plugging into the home electricity supply every day – during the day if possible, to utilise solar-generated power. Though even at night our electricity supply is cheaper than that available from commercial charging stations.

However, commercial DC charging stations provide a much quicker recharge time. We use these stations when we need a charge while we are on the road, or maybe parked at a shopping centre with an available fast charger.

So, let’s get this all in perspective ….. I remember switching from an analogue mobile phone to a digital mobile phone, and getting used to recharging the phone every night, rather than every week. Then it was a laptop computer being recharged every day, then an iPad, then a watch, then power tools, and more recently a lawnmower and other garden tools.

We are now very much into the routine of charging these devices every night, or whenever they aren’t being used – and keeping an eye open for power outlets at airports, hospitals and other public areas when running low on charge!

Now we just need to adjust our regular routine ….. no more filling up once a week at the servo, but instead adding one more item – a car – to the ‘Plug-in Every Night’ list, and keeping an eye out for public charging opportunities when required!

Read more about EV charging >>>