Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rolland Zhang on May 29, 2013 at 6:49pm

It is dangerous for the Lead toxicity, so that you need to deal it by 2 ways.

1. reduce the number of the battery which enter people life. such as the small solar products, because no body will recycle the battery from rural area.

2. use the clean battery such as Nimh or Li-ion battery to replace the old battery. to encourge the people to change the battery, we need to pay commission for them.

3. I am not clear about the recovering used batteries, but I think if we still use the Lead battery in rural area. the lead will still hurt humans health.

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Permalink Reply by Evan Mills on May 29, 2013 at 11:00pm

Perhaps some lessons could be learned from how the recovery/recycling of CFLs has been done.  There was a lot of effort in western Europe (Germany in particular, if memory serves) in the early 1990s; less elsewhere perhaps.  I wrote an article about it, but just found that the link to the old IAEEL newsletters is no longer working.  If I can find a new link, I'll come back here and share it.  Otherwise you might try google:

• Mills, E. and N. Borg. 1993. "Mercury and Lighting: Managing the Problem." Newsletter of the International Association for Energy-Efficient Lighting (3/93).

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Pierce on May 30, 2013 at 3:13am

Dear Simon,

When building our business model we struggled with this issue. Understanding that the likelihood that small (say less than 200Wh) batteries were very likely to end up in a hole somewhere and that only very strong incentive programs were likely to change that at all, we developed an approach we like. It is not perfect, but hopefully it contributes to this important discussion.

1. We own and operate the systems over their life. Therefore as a battery reaches EUL, it is typically replaced by one of our sales/service agents and returned to one of our regional centers. In this way we can at least ensure safe disposal.

2. We don't sell lanterns, we provide service at a higher level but with a low cost payment structure. Lanterns are great, but they did not transform the night time experience for people, they mostly reduced the negative impacts of kerosene. Ironically, lanterns and mobile phones represent both a big step forward for the rural poor, but also their first introduction to E-Waste. We as an industry have a responsibility to address this.

3. We use exclusively Lithium-ion chemistry for our batteries that is not toxic to the environment in the way SLA or NiCad etc batteries are. They are more expensive, but the benefits outweigh the costs dramatically.

That is our scheme: use low toxicity batteries with recovery built directly into our business model. 

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Permalink Reply by Simon Collings on May 31, 2013 at 4:19am

Thanks to those who responded to my question - a few people also contacted me by email. Rental or 'pay as you go' models certainly create conditions where used batteries can be recovered.

Everyone who responded so far emphasised the need to move to NiMh, Li+ or LiFePO4 batteries. I certainly agree with this. Currently though lead acid batteries are the dominant type used in solar lighting products and that is likely to be the case for a while. Facilities for recycling lead acid batteries - which are of course also used in vehicles and to light homes - are rudimentary in much of sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya Safaricom recently launched an e-waste initiative. Several Chinese companies are also active in buying used batteries.

Does anyone know of the solar companies which sell products with lead acid batteries that are encouraging appropriate disposal of the batteries through recycling schemes? I'd be interested in knowing of examples.

Thanks for your thoughts Evan about lessons from dealing with mercury in bulbs. Looks like we may need a clean up drive on used lead acid batteries at some stage.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Barson on June 5, 2013 at 1:08pm

Barefoot Power (trading through Smart Solar in Kenya) has been working on this for a while and offers a 10% discount when distributors return old batteries when they purchase new batteries. Then they are shipped to waste recovery companies/organisations in Mombasa.  The % success of this approach is hard to quantify as the majority of sales in a growing company are always in the most recent 12-24 months, before the average battery lifespan.

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Permalink Reply by Salvatore Chester on June 6, 2013 at 4:47am

Dear Simon,

battery quality and durability is one issue. Disposal another. Talking about solar lanterns, my view is to simply go and push for LiFePO4 = 2000 cycles batteries, allowing minimum 5 years (could last much more) for basic pico products. This way disposal becomes sporadic and infrequent. Besides, the question of battery replacement becomes irrelevant too, because of actual obsolescence. NB. these days, no-one buys the same model of basic mobile phone twice, not even in rural Africa. Newest products cost less than the old batteries, when lucky to find them (the batteries).

In reality - unfortunately - there also those who cleverly design and sell products using rechargeable (easily replaceable ?) batteries lasting 6 to 12 months. Battery dealers need to eat too. So prolonging the time (cycles) of actual usage offers to me the best possible solution.

 

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Permalink Reply by Evan Mills on August 10, 2013 at 1:29am

Some discussion going on in the Energy Access Practitioner Network, here.

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Permalink Reply by Yotam Ariel on August 11, 2013 at 6:48pm

When I was in Cambodia, I asked the villagers what they do when the battery is dead.

They actually keep it for a trader who visits the village every once in a while to buy
dead lead acid batteries, it is then exported to Thailand for recycling.

That's also the case in Nepal (collected and exported to India).

What we are doing now through BennuValue (our website is being upgraded..) is register 
each user, and they actually send a text message whenever there is a malfunction to ask
for help. This makes it easier to know and coordinate dead battery collection.
(we reward villagers by giving replacement battery at discount, mobile airtime, etc.)  

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