As the wind knows, especially solar power plants have batteries in their circuits for storing electricity. The reason is that solar power plants and wind farms do not have such stable energy output as hydropower plants, thermal power plants or nuclear power plants and batteries allow this to be leveled.
And usually these batteries have gel batteries.
What is a gel battery?
In a gel battery, the space between the lead plates is occupied by an electrolyte thickened to the gel level. Such a technology significantly increases the lifetime of such a battery, on average, this value exceeds 7 years, and the number of discharges of 0 that a gel battery can withstand exceeds 400. With stable operation at a power plant without constant full discharges, a gel battery can last a very long time. Its disadvantages are low vibration resistance and very low starting currents, which are precisely the disadvantages for use in a car.
Why is it profitable to find an alternative to a gel battery?
The cheapest Chinese gel batteries with a voltage of 12 V, this is the output voltage of an average solar panel, cost up to 400 UAH. But this is with a capacity of 5000 mAh. Which is slightly more than the battery capacity of an average laptop. Or it’s four 5000 mAh smartphone battery capacities. That is, for a very small solar panel at 100-200 watts, such a battery may be enough, but for a larger power plant it is necessary to connect several into one battery in parallel.
Is it more profitable to replace the gel battery with a lithium-ion one?
Li-ion lithium batteries are the most popular in electronics. They are in laptops, smartphones, cameras and other devices. But is it possible to save money on them? Fully! For example, a gel battery for 400 UAH with a voltage of 12 V and a capacity of 5 A * h accumulates only 60 W * h. Or 0.15 W * h / UAH. Compare this with an inexpensive 1.2 V Ni-Cd battery with a capacity of 2.7 Ah * at a price of 90 UAH. It turns out about 0.03 W * h / UAH, which is much less. But in gel batteries a very strong competitor.
With lithium batteries, the situation is different. At a price of 50 UAH, you can get a 3.7 V battery with a capacity of 3.4 A * h, which is approximately equal to 12.5 W * h or 0.25 W * h / UAH. Thus, a battery with lithium-ion batteries can replace gel batteries with a gain of 20-40%. For example, a battery with 3 series-connected such batteries will already have a voltage of 11.1 V with an energy capacity of 37.5 W * h and a price of 150 UAH. By connecting in parallel two such batteries with three batteries each, we get 75 Wh * at a price of 300 UAH. That is, 15 W * h more at a price less than 100 UAH.
Thus, you can easily increase capacity and significantly reduce battery costs. But remember that the real savings on battery life is how you use them, not how much you paid when you bought them.
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