Archive:000/Lead-acid batteries

Lead-acid batteries are an older technology used mostly as car batteries (gasoline-powered cars, to start the engine). Could they help solve the energy storage problem?

Viability

#Need for lead	Maybe an issue
Toxicity	Probably an issue
#Suitable for electric vehicles?	Unknown
Charge/discharge losses	Inferior to other battery types
#Good enough for DIY projects?	Probably

Need for lead

Lead is usually considered an abundant (cheap) metal - but apparently, not abundant enough to really scale up lead-acid batteries for on-grid energy storage:

other_energy.tfc

3290.73 Mtoe/year

Global energy usage, total final consumption minus transport and industrial

Source: Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report)

Note: This is roughly the amount of on-grid energy consumption that we might need energy storage for. It consists of - for example - lighting, heating, appliances, and other energy used in homes and other buildings. We don't count industrial here, because we can assume (in principle) that most factories could operate during peak sunlight/wind, needing negligable energy storage.

storage_timescale

24 hours

How big the "buffer" of energy storage would have to be to be resiliant against weather fluctuations

The exact number could be up for debate. Join the .

lead.reserves

90 million tonnes

Global lead reserves 2010-2021 - Statista

lead.resources

2 billion tonnes

USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021

lead_acid.energy_by_mass

38 watt hours per kg

Specific energy of a lead-acid battery

Source: Lead-acid battery - Wikipedia

lead_acid.lead

60%

How much of a lead-acid battery is lead, by mass

Source: Lead-acid battery - Wikipedia

% lead.reserves (calculation loading) But lead resources are a lot higher than lead reserves, for some reason (yes there's a difference): % lead.resources (calculation loading) So from that perspective, lead is in fact abundant enough, but the environmental footprint of mining it might be quite high.^{[QUANTIFICATION needed]} And we still haven't counted the need for energy storage in electric vehicles.

Suitable for electric vehicles?

Lead-acid batteries are already used in gasoline-powered vehicles, but you'd need to stack a lot more of them to make a fully electric vehicle. This might not be safe.^{[RESEARCH needed]}

Good enough for DIY projects?

If you have some extra car batteries, may as well use them for a rooftop solar project. They probably won't store enough energy to power your whole home, but it's better than nothing. Beware of safety issues.^{[ELABORATION needed]}