Page 103 - A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Energy Systems

98 A COMPrEHENSIVE GUIdE TO SOlAr ENErGy SySTEMS

isolated underdeveloped areas and recycling practices lack basic precautions to prevent
emissions of these substances to the workplace and environment. Those recycling facilities
that are licensed face serious competition from the informal sector, which formerly con-
sisted of small-scale backyard recycling operations which are now increasingly replaced by
industrial scale informal smelters [40,41]. lead poisoning of workers is common and fatal
in some cases. The issue of hazardous waste arising from increased deployment of batteries
for solar home systems in Africa is significant. In 2016, 1.232 million tonnes of lead-acid bat-
teries were shipped to Africa containing >800 000 tonnes of Pb (equivalent to 10% of global
production) [40]. To meet the Nigerian target of 30 GW of installed solar capacity using lead-
acid batteries will require an initial installation of over 40 million batteries, with 280 million
batteries installed, recovered, and recycled over the lifetime of these systems [26].
The discussion so far indicates that lead-acid batteries are cheapest by a significant
margin, and therefore will continue to be widely used for PV systems in place of alternative
technologies across Africa. However, their use results in greater global warming potential
than most li-ion alternatives over the 20 year lifetime of the system.
Optimum battery use requires some knowledge of the technology, as does proper
handling of waste batteries [40]. Thus any system installation also requires: (1) an
additional basic education and training package on the benefits of solar energy, as well
as proper operation, maintenance and replacement of components; and (2) full system
performance monitoring and analysis for problem/fault prediction/finding.

FIGURE 5.11 Carbon footprint of batteries for the system including replacements. VRLA, Valve regulated lead-acid;
LTO, lithium-iron-phosphate with lithium titanate anode; LFP, lithium-iron-phosphate with carbon anode; LMO,
lithium-manganese-oxide; NCM, lithium-nickel-cobalt-manganese; NCA, lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminium-oxide. Data
used from Baumann M, Peters JF, Weil M, Grunwald A, CO 2 footprint and life-cycle costs of electrochemical energy
storage for stationary grid applications, Energy Technol 2017; 7:1071–83.