When Does the Operation of a Battery Become Environmentally Positive?

This work presents life cycle analysis, the primary energy demand and balance, as well as overall sustainability of using Pb-acid and Li-ion technology in residential photovoltaic systems. It is shown that the ecological amortization in residential storage occurs after only a few months of operation. The Li-ion storage system becomes environmentally positive after 0.6 years while Pb-acid systems require 1.8 years of operation before it becomes environmentally positive. (C) The Author(s) 2016. Published by ECS. All rights reserved.