Abstract
Electric storage batteries are the vital part of off-grid photovoltaic power plants which are widely used in most developing and underdeveloped nations of the world. Batteries are also needed for load leveling and frequency voltage stabilization in grid connected solar and wind farms. More than 10,000 numbers are the estimated number of off-grid battery-based large and small community solar power plants in India. Almost all of these power plants and their batteries suffer from major capacity degradation within five years of installation although the design life of batteries with minimum 80% capacity retention is 8–10 years. This paper studies the capacity loss due to cycling in batteries used for solar power plant application through solar simulated laboratory tests. Through the tests, capacity degradation process could be simulated in laboratory conditions. It was found therefrom that the degradation pattern is different in different types of batteries. Further, the said degradation in capacity can be reversed through a servicing process termed as equalizing charge. The periodicity of equalizing charge has been determined for two major battery types used in solar power plants. The said equalizing charge process if done periodically can reverse the degradation due to cycling, thus extending the battery life to its design value of 8–10 years.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Clean Energy Access network ‘A Detailed Manual On Lead Acid Battery Operation & Maintenance For Solar PV Plants’ Homepage. http://www.thecleannetwork.org/resources/reports-publications/technology/. Last accessed 11 Feb 2019
Ruetschi, P.: Aging mechanisms and service life of lead–acid batteries. J. Power Sources 127(1–2), 33–44 (2004)
Brik, K., Ben Ammar, F.: The fault tree analysis of lead acid battery’s degradation. J Electr Syst 4–2, 1–12 (2008)
May, G.J., Davidson, A., Monahov, B.: Lead batteries for utility energy storage: a review. J Energy Storage 15, 145–157 (2018)
Merrouche, W., Achaibou, N., Bouzidi, B., Kasser, M., Trari, M.: Lead-acid battery degradation mechanisms in photovoltaic systems PVS. In: The 3rd International Workshop on Integration of Solar Power into Power Systems SIW2013, At London, UK, Volume: 2013
Comparison between Flat and Tubular Positive Plates, White paper: Storage Battery Systems, LLC Homepage. https://www.sbsbattery.com/PDFs/SBS_WP_101_BattComp-WithRefs.pdf. Last accessed 12 Feb 2019
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Customized Energy Solutions Pvt Ltd., Pune under the Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN) project, Award Number AID-386-A-14-00013. The authors are thankful to Mr. Viral Patel and Ms. Chaitra Dandavatimath who were instrumental in carrying out all the tests described in this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Roy, A., Sen, R., Shete, R. (2021). Investigation on Different Types of Electric Storage Batteries Used in Off-grid Solar Power Plants and Procedures for Their Performance Improvement. In: Bose, M., Modi, A. (eds) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research. Springer Proceedings in Energy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5955-6_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5955-6_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-5954-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-5955-6
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)