What if we could provide energy not only to the places in the world that need it most, but also to them in a cost-effective way? This is a question often raised when discussing developing countries whose power grids are often in their early stages of development. Because they lack the capacity to store energy and regulate its use during peak demand periods, power outages, rationing, and even energy shortages are inevitable. The core issue currently facing them is energy storage: there are no cost-effective batteries available to supplement existing power grid infrastructure.
Furthermore, another industry faces its own set of problems. Electric vehicles (EVs), seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to internal combustion engines and fossil fuels, are considered the future of transportation. However, EVs have a fatal flaw: what happens when the half-ton battery can no longer hold enough power to drive the car? The best current solution is to recycle these batteries to recover raw materials, but this method is costly, lacks regulation, and has no clearly defined supply chain. Therefore, the Energy Institute predicts that by 2025, the number of discarded EV batteries globally will exceed 3.4 million.
To achieve better energy storage technologies, the world needs better batteries, and Analog Devices (ADI) has made significant progress in providing the electronics required to achieve this. These technological breakthroughs are thanks to our continuously improving Battery Management System (BMS). Building on our leadership in wired BMS, we recently developed groundbreaking Wireless BMS (WBMS) technology, eliminating the need for battery wiring harnesses. The Wireless BMS provides OEMs with a superior way to more flexibly extend their electric vehicle platforms to multiple vehicle models, enabling flexible, reusable, and cost-effective platforms, while also providing the data needed to support the secondary use of battery packs.
All these technological advancements combined have improved the feasibility of battery reuse technologies such as energy storage systems (ESS). ESS enables renewable energy installations (such as wind turbines and solar panels) to capture and store energy, supporting grid power during peak hours. The reliable data collection capabilities of WBMS sensors further refine this approach. Before deciding to reuse a battery, sellers can use this data to generate a health history: how many full or partial charge and discharge cycles the electric vehicle owner has performed; whether the electric vehicle has been involved in any accidents; what can be gleaned from the vehicle's maintenance records? This sophisticated health monitoring can also be applied to areas where data cannot logically be collected.
Finally, ADI is using a high-performance battery to help address two of the world's biggest energy challenges. In developing countries, reusing electric vehicle batteries to store sustainable energy is now largely feasible, making electric vehicles more economically viable. For us, this is just another milestone in our ongoing pursuit of breakthroughs to achieve a better life for humanity.
