Headline CLEAN TECH FOR FUTURE TECH MediaTitle The Edge Date 16 Aug 2021 Language English Circulation 25,910 Readership 77,730 Section Digital Edge Page No DE1,DE6,DE7 ArticleSize 2945 cm² Journalist TAN ZHAI YUN PR Value RM 152,121

FROM THE ft&ffj--,. START Learning from old mistakes, emerging industries can be proactive in reducing their adverse impact on the environment from the outset, Two in particular - data centres and electric vehicles - are trying to do just that, despite abounding challengeSrPGS Headline CLEAN TECH FOR FUTURE TECH MediaTitle The Edge Date 16 Aug 2021 Language English Circulation 25,910 Readership 77,730 Section Digital Edge Page No DE1,DE6,DE7 ArticleSize 2945 cm² Journalist TAN ZHAI YUN PR Value RM 152,121

COVER STORY

CLEAU N TEC FOR FUTURE INITIATIVES IN REFURBISHING OLD EV TECH BATTERIES

• Motor Corp opened Japan's first plant specialising in the reuse and recycling of (EV) lithium- ion batteries in collaboration with Sumitomo Corp in A few years ago, Dr Gobbi Ramasamy, an 2018.lt has developed indsight is always 20:20 especially when it comes to associate professor at Multimedia University's technology to assess decisions relating to technology. Looking back today faculty of engineering, was approached by Tan the capacity of all from an environmental and climate change lens,we Chong Motor Holdings Bhd with lithium-ion modules in a battery realise that a lot of the decisions made previously batteries from Nissan Motor's Leaf electric pack at once and is were wasteful and not very far-sighted. vehicles (EVs). working on a pilot project to use old EV For instance,when electronics like laptops were Nissan Leaf was the first EV to be sold in batteries as storage first introduced, they could have been designed to Malaysia in 2013. Lithium-ion batteries for EVs for solar-powered be easily collected, disassembled and recycled after tend to last for five to 10 years, so the batteries street lighting. use, so we would not end up with huge graveyards of from the first generation of Nissan Leaf sold Eclimo's EV two-wheeler battery packs e-waste, choking up our landfills and leaching toxic in Malaysia were due to be sent to Japan for are put together without welding, a design • Toyota Motor Corp substances into the earth and waterways. recycling, says Gobbi, that Chuah has patented has partnered with Or, what about gas emissions from vehicles and But that was costly, so the company Chubu Electric Power power plants? Couldn't these have been designed approached Gobbi through Lee Yuen How, his since 2018 to turn better and implemented more effectively to mini- former student who founded the EV charging is also considered a waste of resources to old EV and hybrid mise or even eliminate the ecological fallout from company EV Connection Sdn Bhd. dismantle the battery when its useful life is not vehicle batteries into renewable energy billions of tonnes of emissions being released into "We saw that we are at the beginning of an over, given the amount of resources spent on storage systems. the atmosphere? era. You already can see the impact of EVs now manufacturing the battery. Although it is late in the day to be thinking about in the huge number of used batteries sitting in According to various sources, less than • BMW Group these things, thankfully, more can be done. Many new warehouses," says Gobbi. 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled works with various industries have been developed to deal with these He wanted to give a second life to these in Europe and the US. Almost no lithium is companies to recycle very problems in basic design and give humanity lithium-ion batteries, which still had enough recovered in the European Union (EU) currently used EV batteries or a chance to start anew and do better. power to be used for other purposes. One because it is deemed less cost effective than turn them into energy In this article, Digital Edge speaks to industry particularly feasible option was to turn them primary supplies, according to a European storage systems. players striving to make two emerging technolo- into battery storage for solar power systems. Parliamentary Research Service article in July. gies — data centres and electric vehicles (EVs) — Currently, solar power generators are able to • Tesla says that 100% more sustainable. sell their excess energy back to the grid through of its EV batteries are Data centres are a key enabler of the digital the government's Net Energy Metering Scheme. recycled and that it does its best to extend economy. But they require a huge amount of energy "But this scheme will eventually stop. What the useful life of to cool their servers. As Malaysia hopes to become is going to happen then? Peak usage is in the each battery pack. It a data centre hub in Southeast Asia, it is important evening, but it is during daytime that the solar works with Redwood to explore how renewable energy and energy-effi- panels generate electricity. Batteries for energy Materials, which aims cient technologies can be used to offset the carbon storage will become an important element to create a closed- footprint of data centres. After all, the electricity then," says Gobbi. loop recycling process generation mix in Malaysia is currently dominated While the used lithium-ion batteries no for EV batteries. by coal and natural gas. longer have enough capacity to support EVs, Meanwhile, EVs are driving the green revolu- they are sufficient for energy storage systems. • SungEel HiTech, tion in the transport sector. While they are not a In fact, this is something that Datuk Dennis South Korea's largest battery recycler, has a common sight on Malaysian roads at the moment, Chuah, founder and executive director of closed-loop recycling more EVs are expected in the coming years as global Eclimo Sdn Bhd, has been doing. Eclimo has process to treat automotive manufacturers and governments have been leasing its EV two-wheelers to companies lithium-ion batteries committed to phasing out internal combustion like KFC and DHL as well as local authorities to from electronics and engine (ICE) vehicles. do deliveries and patrolling since 2008. it serves as a key However, this will also likely produce a tsunami After five years, he realised that the lithium- © When companies ask supplier to battery of lithium-ion batteries, which power EVs. The ion batteries could no longer support the for permission to sell makers. It has a International Energy Agency projects global EV factory in Malaysia. two-wheelers. He replaced the batteries and EVs, the government stock to grow from over 11 million in 2020 to almost refurbished the old ones into energy storage should ask them to have 145 million in 2030, and for electric two or three- solutions. wheelers to reach 385 million in 2030. "This second life given to batteries is very a proper plan for battery If not managed properly, the batteries could pollute important because they still have 70% of power recycling from the day it is the environment while more lithium continues to capacity. Only when it reaches zero should you installed in the car until it is be mined from the ground. Ultimately, it would think about recycling them," says Chuah. disposed of." not make sense if EVs, which are meant to reduce Not many recyclers are eager to accept Gobbi greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, used EV lithium-ion batteries as the recycling result in more environmental damage. B process is costly and energy intensive. It Headline CLEAN TECH FOR FUTURE TECH MediaTitle The Edge Date 16 Aug 2021 Language English Circulation 25,910 Readership 77,730 Section Digital Edge Page No DE1,DE6,DE7 ArticleSize 2945 cm² Journalist TAN ZHAI YUN PR Value RM 152,121

AUGUST ft MMU

of maximum demand of the consumer's current installation cannot wait to only look at this matter 10 years to preserve the stability of the later, when you already have 500,000 EVs on REDUCING national power grid system. This the road." means data centres still need to A clear policy signal would also help third THE CARBON rely on conventional electricity parties such as Chuah and Gobbi, who are supply. finding second lives for lithium-ion batteries. FOOTPRINT That's not to say nothing is As the price of new lithium-ion batteries being done. For instance, GSPARX continue to decline, Chuah may struggle to find OF DATA partnered with NTT Ltd in January customers for his refurbished battery packs. to install solar power systems He is already faced with price pressures CENTRES in the administrative buildings to keep his electric two-wheelers affordable of NTT's data centre campus in compared with traditional motorbikes. "That's The demand for data centres Malaysia. why I make sure I collect the batteries and sell is unlikely to cease given our Microsoft Corp, which plans them as battery packs, so I can stretch my reliance on the internet. However, to establish its first data centre profits." data centres require a huge region in Kuala Lumpur, has Refurbishing an EV battery amount of energy to power and said it will have power purchase requires taking the battery cool their equipment. agreements for green energy to pack, which comprises many The International Energy power all its data centres. modules, apart. The third Agency (IEA) estimates that Elmie has a few party will have to buy the old global data centre electricity recommendations for data centre batteries, dismantle them and demand was around 200TWh in operators. Existing ones could test the modules to assess 2019, or around 0.8% of global consider offsite solar energy their remaining capacity. They final electricity demand. generation by subscribing to then have to repack the good In Malaysia, data centres a green tariff or purchasing modules into battery packs. contributed 1.4 million metric Renewable Energy Certificates "We are worried that the tonnes of carbon dioxide in (REC). price of second-life batteries 2011 alone and spent close to Green tariffs, offered via will be equivalent or higher RM714 million on energy bills, Tenaga's myGreent scheme, than new lithium-ion batteries, according to the 2015 Malaysian enable customers to purchase considering that the price of Communications and Multimedia green energy without having the latter keeps going down," Commission's technical code to install their own renewable says Gobbi. specifications for green data energy power system. Customers centres. can subscribe to the scheme in A business opportunity 100kWh blocks at a rate for refurbishment of eight sen/kWh, subject EV batteries are extracted from a Automotive manufacturers and to a quota. Electricity Nissan Leaf and -miEV. governments are already undertaking various consumption beyond the These batteries are refurbished into efforts to create a market for used EV batteries scheme is charged according battery storage solutions at the (refer to box). Could this be something Malaysia to the normal tariff. Multimedia University PV Energy can tap? RECs are handled by Storage Lab. There are several factors that industry TNBX, another subsidiary players must consider first. The cost structure, of Tenaga, and represent as mentioned by the interviewees, is currently the delivery of 1MWh of Chuah has been selling the refurbished a hurdle. renewable energy to the grid. battery packs to local authorities in East Malaysia, Of course, in Eclimo's case, Chuah does Companies can purchase who install them in remote villages that have not have to buy used batteries since it has its RECs to diversify their energy solar panels. He has also found customers in night own supply. He also distinguishes his company portfolio if they cannot market operators, who used to rely on diesel by designing the battery packs to be easily generate renewable energy generators to power their lights and fans. disassembled. Elmie (middle) with the GSPARX team themselves. TNBX started "The pasar malam operators can use the "The easiest way for people to assemble offering Malaysian RECs refurbished battery pack to power 10 LED lithium cells is spot welding. It's very hard Based on international through the Malaysian Green lights for 10 hours. For Orang Asli villages, I for you to recycle these cells. But I don't use industry averages, data centres Attribute Tracking System in May can design the battery to last for three to four welding. When you open the casing five years are responsible for 20% of the 2020. days before they need to recharge it with solar later, the cell is still intact. I have a patent on information and communications Subscribing to these two panels," says Chuah. The battery can be used how I assemble the battery pack," he says. technology (ICT) industry's energy solutions can offset the carbon for another five to 10 years, he adds. As more companies aim to lower consumption and carbon footprint. emissions produced by data It is estimated that every one million new their carbon footprint, this could open up But this energy demand can centres that are not able to EVs will add around 25GWh of storage to the opportunities for Chuah to lease his EV two- remain flat, the IEA points out, if generate sufficient renewable system, according to Gobbi's research paper wheelers. For instance, Grab is collaborating there is a shift towards hyperscale energy by themselves. However, published in the Journal of Energy Storage. This with Hyundai Motor Group to accelerate EV data centres that are more it does not mean that only clean highlights how EVs can not only transform the adoption among its riders. efficient. The use of renewable energy is supplied to the data transport sector but also the energy industry. If more automotive companies are required energy is also an important centre; it merely means that to manage their used EV batteries, it would solution. an equivalent amount of green Regulations for taking back old make the refurbishing business more attractive While solar power systems for energy is supplied to the grid. batteries and economical. all data centres in Malaysia sound This seems to be a popular In 2018, China issued new rules that require Regardless, the journey ahead is long. Even like a no-brainer, there are a few solution for tech players. According EV manufacturers to be responsible for the the collection of e-waste for recycling is slow challenges to take note of, says to the IEA, global hyperscale data afterlife of EV batteries by setting up facilities in Malaysia due to lack of awareness, Gobbi Elmie Fairul Mahsuri, managing centre operators like Google and to collect and recycle these spent batteries. observes. director of GSPARX. The company, Apple were among the top takers The EU is finalising similar proposed regulations "That's why, when companies ask for which offers renewable energy of power purchase agreements for that also mandate minimum levels of recycled permission to sell EVs, the government should solutions, is a subsidiary of TNB renewable energy in 2019. content for batteries. ask them to have a proper plan for battery Renewable Sdn Bhd. For data centres that are still Both Gobbi and Chuah observe that such recycling from the day it is installed in the car "Many existing data centres in the planning stage, Elmie says regulations are extremely important to ensure until it is disposed of," he adds. have limited rooftop space, which rooftop solar panel installations that the batteries do not end up in landfills or in Fortunately, this is an area the government is insufficient for the required can be included in the design from the hands of illegal recyclers. They incentivise is interested in. Gobbi's project to study the number of rooftop solar panels to the beginning. manufacturers to design batteries that can be effectiveness of old EV batteries as energy fully power their operations," says The IEA report also suggests easily dismantled and promote technological storage for solar power systems is funded by Elmie. that governments, grid operators innovations in the recycling and refurbishment a grant from the former Ministry of Energy, "The number of hours with and data centre operators processes. Science, Technology, Environment and Climate sufficient sunlight is important too collaborate to determine how "The regulations must say that if you are Change. as rain and clouds can affect the renewable energy investments producing this many cars, you must also have "In Malaysia, we now have EVs from steady supply of energy needed can benefit the whole system. the capacity to recycle this many batteries," companies like Volvo, BMW and others. We are to power the 24-hour operations." Investments in energy storage says Chuah. trying to educate everyone that there is a huge Additionally, the Energy solutions should also be Alongside the road map to introduce more business opportunity in second-life batteries Commission only allows 75% encouraged. EVs in Malaysia, there must be a long-term and everyone will benefit from this," says plan to manage the batteries, adds Gobbi. "You Gobbi.