New Delhi : Mr. L. Pugazhenthy, Executive director, India Lead Zinc Association said, “India consumes an estimated around 1 million tons of used lead-acid batteries for recycling economy each year and about 25-30% of this goes to the informal operators. Lead-acid batteries have the largest share; it is an energy source, affordable battery, and a dependable and reliable product. Batteries are used to store and supply electricity to electric vehicles, street lights, automotive, railway, inverters, telecom towers, and solar energy when grid power fails“.
A webinar on Advance Lead-Acid Battery was organized by India Lead Zinc Association (ILZDA) supported by Hindustan Zinc in association with Indian Battery Manufacturers Association (IBMA) and India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA). The webinar underlined the imperative need of growing requirement of energy storage in the market.
The dignitaries during the webinar deliberated on sustainability and recyclability of lead Batteries, presented perspective on ALAB space in green energy storage, explored advanced Lead Acid Battery ecosystem and thoughts on incentivization schemes for manufacturers and dealer. Market overview of lead acid battery and its subsequent scope was also presented while discussing on applications of advance lead acid battery as hybrid or standalone, Sustainable operations & technologies for lead processing.
Lead-acid batteries (lead-carbon batteries) are the first battery technology used in energy storage. It is an extensively used energy storage system due to its proven safety, performance, low cost, and excellent recycling capabilities. Compared to other technologies, lead-acid battery is built to handle consistent load requirements in a very cost-efficient manner. As lead is 100% recyclable, the lead-acid battery is completely developed with a robust recycling capacity of more than 3 million pa in India. Lead-acid batteries can be found in a wide variety of applications, including small-scale power storage such as UPS systems, starting, lighting, and ignition power sources for automobiles, along with large, grid-scale power systems. They have a long lifetime and low costs compared to other battery types.
India is one of the highest consumers of Lead-acid batteries. Recycling of used Lead batteries is essential to ensure the need for sustainable development.
Energy conservation isn’t a new notion. Owing to concerns regarding the environmental impacts of fossil fuels and the capacity and resilience of energy grids globally, there have been some continuous efforts to fetch solutions on storing the energy. Energy storage has now become a necessity as it can address the irregularity of solar and wind power. It can also tackle the huge alterations in demand, aiding in making the energy grid more receptive and thus diminishing the need to build back up power plants.
The dignitaries present at the event were, Mr. Subhankar Chakraborty, Senior General Manager (R&D), Exide industries Ltd; Mr. Rahul Prithiani, Director, Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL); Dr. Alistair Davidson, Director, Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI) and Mr. Amlan Kanti Das, Sr. Vice President-Battery Operations, R&D, Luminous Power Technology Pvt. Ltd. and Manoj Soni, VP, Business Excellence, Sustainable Operation & Technologies for Lead Processing, Hindustan Zinc.
There have been various Lead Battery implementations carried out previously across the world. Narada Power Source had partnered with energy storage operator, Upside Group, in a 16 MW frequency regulation project for the German power grid. The 25 MWh frequency regulation installation was connected to the local utility grid providing electricity to the area. A 20MWh lead carbon battery by China Shoto Energy Storage stores and provides electricity generated by the PV panel directly into the Chinese grid. This battery system can provide 30 MW of solar power and can reach 4,000 cycles at 70% depth of discharge. The 1MW off-grid solar systems, located in the mountains of Bamyan, Afghanistan, uses lead batteries curated by Crown Battery. This project provides 24-hour power to 25,000 homes, businesses, hospitals and government officers for this central mountainous region. The lead batteries are built with a capacity of 38 strings at 4,500 Ah 48 V DC.
According to India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), the Indian energy storage market is expected to grow to 70 GW by 2022. Consequently, there is a vast scope for advanced storage technologies in the new applications, along with the opportunity for existing technologies. Lead acid batteries are the most used form of battery for most rechargeable battery applications.
The lead acid battery has many advantages for automotive and many other uses: they have a large current and surge capability, which is ideal when being used to start internal combustion engines. Advance lead-acid battery as standalone or hybrid holds a crucial role in achieving India’s future energy needs as it is the most cost-effective and recyclable that will assist in India’s transformation in the renewable energy sector.
