Life cycle assessment of electrochemical and mechanical energy storage systems

Abstract

The effect of the co-location of electrochemical and kinetic energy storage on the cradle-to-gate impacts of the storage system was studied using LCA methodology. The storage system was intended for use in the frequency containment reserve (FCR) application, considering a number of daily charge–discharge cycles in the range of 50–1000. The results show that a significant environmental benefit (up to a 96% decrease in cradle-to-gate global warming potential, from 1.65 ± 0.12 to 0.059 ± 0.004 kg CO2-eq./kWh) can be obtained by the co-location of battery and flywheel storage systems, owing to the ability of the flywheel component to preserve battery lifetime by delivering the frequent charge events required in the FCR application. A moderate saving of 24% in global warming potential (from 1.65 ± 0.12 to 1.26 ± 0.11 kg CO2-eq./kWh) could already be achieved by switching from a battery to flywheel storage system with repeated charge–discharge cycling (200 or more charge events per day). This study highlights the need to consider the intensity of charge–discharge cycling when choosing an environmentally preferable storage technology as well as introducing a methodology for incorporating the number of daily cycles in the analysis.