Assessment of lithium ion LiFePO<inf>4</inf> cells usage in photovoltaic standalone systems

Abstract

Since the emergence of photovoltaic powered systems, lead/acid batteries have been the preferred energy storage solution thanks to their low price and high robustness to abusive operation. However, limited shelf-life and low energy density are two important drawbacks of this technology which hinder the development of very small scale photovoltaic standalone systems. NovéaÉnergies is a French manufacturer of such systems used for lighting of off-grid isolated areas. In partnership with the French National Institute for Solar Energy (INES) and the Institute of Electronic and Telecommunications of Rennes (IETR), this project aims to develop an alternative energy storage system economically competitive while exhibiting a better lifespan and energy density. We show in this paper that lithium ion (Li-ion) technology and particularly cells using lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO 4 -LFP) cathode material, exhibit pricing and robustness features which make them a viable alternative to Valve Regulated Lead/Acid (VRLA) batteries which are mainly used today in small photovoltaic standalone systems.

Efficiency Degradation Model of Lithium-Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles

“…Lithium-ion manufacturers recommend not to use this technology over 60°C, thus this is the higher limit of temperature for ageing tests. Higher temperatures may induce thermal runaway even in rest conditions [30].…”

“…Accelerated ageing tests consisted in storing each cell at a fixed temperature (30,45 x during charge x discharge x during discharge cells were tested at each test condition for each lithiumion technology in order to improve the representativeness of results. Two technologies were tested: NMC cells are from Kokam (SLPB 70205130P, 12Ah pouch cells), whereas LFP cells are from A123 (ANR26650M1A, 2.3Ah, cylindrical cells).…”

Impact of battery ageing on e-mobility energy efficiency

“…Lithium-ion manufacturers recommend not to use this technology over 60°C, thus this is the high limit of temperature for ageing tests. Higher temperatures can induce thermal runaway even in rest conditions [17].…”

Partial State-of-Charge Mitigation in Standalone Photovoltaic Hybrid Storage Systems

“…For example, applications 2 of 20 such as elevators [6], need high power density so their ESS are mainly based on ultracapacitors. On the other side, applications as standalone photovoltaic systems for communication or metering stations (Figure 1), demand mid or long-term storage rather than high power peaks, so electrochemical technologies as battery packs (of the different chemistries already introduced) are best suited [1,3,[7][8][9][10]. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the standalone photovoltaic systems and the key issues they suffer from, specifically PSoC.…”