As California accelerates its push toward 100% zero-emission new car sales by 2035, hundreds of thousands of electric-vehicle batteries will be finishing their freeway lives — and it’s not clear what’s going to happen to them.
Chung’s EV-battery diagnostic company has launched a state-funded pilot project to adapt the used batteries for solar storage, a repurposing that could extend their lives by a decade or more — and forestall actual dismantling and recycling.Thanks to its progressive environmental policies, California currently accounts for 42% of the nation’s electric vehicles. And, for several years, state legislators have recognized the potential toxic consequences posed by the battery-powered vehicles.
“The report identifies several policy solutions that have been proven to work for other products in California and for batteries in countries around the world,” said Nick Lapis, a member of the panel who represents Californians Against Waste, a nonprofit environmental research and advocacy organization.Obstacle course aheadby the California Energy Commission includes 369,000 electric vehicles, 259,000 plug-in hybrids and 7,000 fuel cell vehicles.
But obstacles to reusing and recycling the batteries in those cars could prove even greater, in part because there hasn’t yet been much need for developing used-battery markets and regulations.and electric vehicles just gaining traction in the last half dozen years — Tesla’s Model X came out in 2015 — it hasn’t been an major issue. There just haven’t been that many batteries retired so far.
But sooner or later, most batteries will have to be dismantled and recycled — or disposed of as hazardous waste. For instance, hazardous waste treatment permits take an average of two years for approval and the last new hazardous facility was approved eight years ago, according to the report. So there are no recent models for the most efficient way to negotiate a cumbersome regulatory process.
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