Battery dump

Author: EIS Release Date: Jul 13, 2021

78 million batteries will be dumped worldwide every day by 2025 if we do not improve the life span for powering IoT devices, according to EnABLES, an EU funded European Research Infrastructure project involving Tyndall National Institute,  CEA-Leti, CEA-Liten, Fraunhofer IIS, Fraunhofer IMS, imec, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Polytechnic University of Turin, University of Bologna, University of Perugia and the University of Southampton.

 

The group is calling on the EU and industry leaders to think about battery life from the outset to ensure batteries outlive the devices they power.  This will help tackle the issue of e-waste and guarantee safer more reliable power sources for devices where batteries are not easily changed, such as medical technologies, implantable devices and technology in harsh and difficult to reach environments.

 

Key recommendations were outlined in a Position Paper which emphasises the need to not only increase the energy supplied by batteries, so they last longer, but to also reduce the amount of power the devices consume.  It also recommends harvesting and the use of ambient energies such as heat, light and movement to further extend battery life.

 

Currently it is estimated that by 2025, there will be 1 trillion IoT devices in the world – smart objects and automated systems that gather information, communicate with each other, and analyse data – such as sensors, smart phones, wearable devices and heating control systems.

 

Many of these devices enable a more sustainable, efficient, organised, safe and connected world, but the benefits they provide come at a price.

 

Typically, IoT devices have an operational life of more than 10 years but they are powered by batteries with life spans of less than two years, thereby requiring multiple battery replacements during their operational lifetime.

 

This means that 130 million batteries will be both manufactured and disposed of every single day by 2025. This will cause major environmental and economic problems, as it is estimated that less than 40% of IoT device batteries are currently recycled.

 

The aim is to ultimately deliver ‘power autonomy’ with batteries sustainably recharging themselves which would help achieve the European Green Deal target of carbon neutrality by 2050.