Thinking about Lead

Very old (160 year +) technology perhaps the GREENEST Technology on the planet

Have you looked at the price of Lead lately? (n.b., this is NOT an Investment Blog). Here we fight narratives.

So, I have 2,000 pounds of (3/8” plate thickness, I think) industrial deep-cycle Rolls Surrette Lead Acid Batteries in my basement (I live as a hedonist off-grid with PV for more than half of the year). In another 15 years you are welcome to come here and steal them — at 200 pounds apiece, they were hard enough to get down into the basement and I don’t even want to think about getting them out of the basement. (As a Physicist, I have some basic knowledge [and even a small bit of experience] re Forces [e.g. Gravity]). I would so rather have been an Alchemist who could turn lead into gold than a Physicist who knows that is impossible.

And you know, lead is a BAD! B!-A!-D! BAD! heavy metal, so you sure don’t want my batteries in your landfill 20 years from now.

And I remember speaking about 20 or 30 so years ago a to an astute PV sales/marketing guy (Jim) to whom I mentioned this “problem” of heavy-metal Pb in landfills from depleted Pb-acid batteries used in PV systems, and wouldn’t it be better to use modern, Green, e.g., NiMH¹ batteries (neglecting their cost, high self-discharge rate, and the fact they contain a shitload of heavy metals)?

And he looked at me as though I were a Complete Idiot and said, “Don’t you know that in every country of the world virtually every single Lead-Acid battery is recycled?” “Lead batteries have a recycling rate of 99.3% in the U.S. making them the No. 1 recycled consumer product”². (Or, an expert in the Industry today told me it was 99.7%). The remaining 0.7% (or 0.3%) are probably “spare” old not-completely-dead batteries people have sitting around in the their barns, and I might be one of those). And it could be much closer to 100% in less-affluent countries where people recycle out of necessity, not merely to be “Green”. (Actually I don’t think that the Pb-acid industry gives a shit about being “Green” or, to show I’m hip to the latest memes, ESG [Environment, Social, Governance], but rather basic economics and having a sustainable business). By contrast, less than 5% of Li-Ion batteries are presently recycled³. Wow, lead-acid batteries are a model of Green Technology when you do or don’t think about it too long or think about all of the other Infinite Possibilities. Who knows, maybe I’m “Green” after all even if I’m a Climate Apocalypse Apostate!

But, how long will they last? Let’s move up a generation to NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries.

Well, in my mind, the gold standard for cycle-life has always been the Panasonic (formerly Sanyo) low-self-discharge Eneloop NiMH battery. They are good for about 2000 cycles, so you can put them into your will and your great grandkids may be using them. I use exclusively (almost exclusively Eneloop) NiMH batteries in my GPS, flashlights, head lamps, Heat Pump controllers, cordless telephone, clock, radio, outdoor LED accent lights, and of course all my portable power tools, my favorite being my Craftsman Impact Driver and all my Ryobi tools (and there is also that Black and Decker WeedWhacker which I never use). My Chinese electric Wheelbarrow uses Pb-acid. And you know what? The best industrial lead-acid batteries can match that 2000 cycles! Of course NiMH batteries are much more expensive than lead-acid batteries, and perhaps only about 5% of them get recycled. My old 2005 Prius Hybrid which I loved of course had NiMH batteries.

OK, so, let’s leave NiMH behind along with last-century Pb-Acid, and get a bit hip and talk about Li Cobalt Iron Phosphate Whatever batteries. The best may have a lifetime a bit longer than Pb-acid (and the not-best probably not), and cost WAY more and are only recycled (thus far) at the 5% level. Of course, where weight is a consideration (e.g., cars, be GREEN buy a Li-Ion car charged with “fossil” fuels) they certainly have the advantage. For Batteries-in-the-Basement, not so much so! And, just to let you know that I am not a complete Luddite, I also have a few Li batteries for my 10,000 lumen Chinese underwater diving LED flashlights. Less than 5% of Li-Ion batteries are being recycled today, and I think I’m once more redundantly repeating myself again.

And I wonder, have they completely optimized lead-acid batteries for lifetime, or a relatively-long-planned-obsolescent lifetime? I don’t know. Everything can be improved. You know what is probably a REALLY big number? Money being spent on Li-battery R&D compared to R&D on increasing the lifetime of Pb-acid batteries.

I may look at this again in another 15 years, if I’m still around and have the interest, when I might think about upgrading or replacing my battery bank. Who knows what might be available then? (Hopefully an iron (Fe) based battery). At least in the meantime, not having Li-batteries, I don’t have to worry about my house burning down.

See my previous postings on “Progress” and PV:

How things have changed; Progress, or how things haven’t changed; and of course one of my true loves, PV: Solar Energy in a Nut Shell — there’s no stopping it!

1. NiMH (Nickel [heavy metal?], Metal [which metals] Hydride (what is that?) batteries. And how recyclable are NiMH batteries? How many are recycled? (Perhaps 5%).

2. https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/battery-council-international-lead-battery-recycling/

3. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4139266-look-lithium-ion-battery-recycling-industry-and-companies. Note, as said before, this is not an Investment Blog, but someday Li-Ion batteries will have to be as closed-looped as Pb-acid batteries, but it’s going to be a lot more difficult to make that happen!