Warning as photo of $10,000 Tesla item highlights new secondhand trend emerging in Australia

Old Tesla Model 3 batteries are being sold online to anyone keen to repurpose them for solar storage systems. Source: Facebook

Thousands of Australian homeowners and businesses are embracing new technology to provide bankable power to their premises as battery technology continues to evolve. And some are even experimenting with "cowboy" set-ups as batteries from discarded electric vehicles become more common in secondhand markets around the country.

It's not the type of thing you expect to buy on Facebook Marketplace, but one current ad, ostensibly from a warehouse in Melbourne shows a number of large Tesla batteries for sale. While the listing states the batteries – on offer for $10,000 each – were from a Tesla Model 3, they are "ready to be used as a large solar storage battery" suitable for large off grid or commercial purposes, the listing says. 

When approached by Yahoo, the seller was hardly forthcoming with information but said the batteries were "from written off cars mostly very low kms". When asked if the batteries came with any paperwork, they simply linked to a website for a lithium-ion battery business based in Perth. 

While it's certainly possible to repurpose old car batteries for solar storage, there are serious risks involved and experts caution that it shouldn't be attempted by most people.

If there's an exception to the rule, it's probably for someone like Stefan Maric who runs a lighting and electrical business in Greater Melbourne. He recently purchased a written off BYD for a measly $2,500 and used the battery as part of a solar storage system at a business site in Geelong.

"We removed the battery, we have a forklift here on site, and we put it in a safe area where we could mechanically protect the battery," he told Yahoo News, stressing the safety measures his team took. That was about six months ago, he said, "and it's been running perfectly ever since." 

The battery was from a BYD Atto 3 extended range, "which typically has a 60kwh battery and basically there are certain CAN-bus protocols (a centralised communication component known as a Controller Area Network bus) that can be used to communicate with certain inverters which are your typical solar inverters," he explained. 

"The important thing, from my perspective, is to ensure that all of those cells are being charged and discharged within their parameters – and that's what this CAN-bus enables."

BYD Atto 3, pictured here, only had fairly 'minor' damage before it was written off and Stefan turned it into a very cheap storage unit. Source: TikTok/Paul Maric

Stefan said the exercise was "a learning curve" and partly about better understanding the potential of repurposing such batteries for commercial means, but admitted it also proved immensely cost effective and saved tens of thousands of dollars compared to buying a comparable system from a wholesaler.

He warned that you need to be qualified to embark on such a project, however. "It's still technically considered low voltage when you're talking electrical terms, but you will die if you touch live conductors," he told Yahoo.

Australian battery refurbishing company InfinitEV (a subsidiary of ASX-200 listed Amotiv Limited) which says its main purpose is to extend the lifetime of batteries has also researched the business case of redirecting EV batteries for solar storage systems. 

"We do not see a commercial repurposed BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) application at the current volumes," the company's commercial manager Oscar Vall told Yahoo News.

"Plain and simple, it's still quite a cowboy space," he said, adding that repurposing batteries in home storage systems is "not encouraged by the manufacturer and not encouraged by us".

"There's a lot of people out there that will take the wrecked vehicle, take the battery out, and then try to make a battery energy storage system, bypassing a lot of safety aspects of that battery," he said. Ultimately the battery is being used in an environment it wasn't designed for and while a storage system is likely to put less stress on a battery than a car, if not done well there can be serious risks, he warned.

Some electricians and hobbyists have taken to YouTube to show off and explain their set-up are taking an old car battery to use for home energy storage. Source: YouTube/Dala's EV Repair

"There's a lot of safety implications of doing this, and I would definitely not like to be the insurer of the property that has a battery like that stuck on the wall."

InfinitEV has explored the commercial possibilities of repurposing EV batteries and recently teamed up with Sustainability Victoria and another start-up to redirect multiple Nissan Leaf battery packs to create a 120kWh energy storage system to take a facility off-grid. 

"We can do it," Oscar said, admitting it's great as a PR exercise or experimental showcase, but currently doing it safely and at scale is not an enticing value proposition, he said. However he noted that could likely change when the electric car market in Australia further develops and there is "more feedstock", or discarded batteries, to supply such a potential business stream. 

Currently, he said "considering the amount of advanced battery systems coming out of China at a very low cost and already designed for this and certified for this," it makes sense for most people and businesses to simply use them.

As for Australian households, they are installing solar batteries at record rates this year, with more than 19,000 registered in a month.

Figures released on Friday by market analysis firm SunWiz indicated consumers could more than double the number of home batteries installed in a single year.

The surge, which was largely anticipated, comes after the launch of the federal government's $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program, which offers rebates of up to 30 per cent for the installation of the home system, a policy trying to leverage the already high rates of rooftop solar in Australia.

On Monday, Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen took to social media claiming his government had delivered 15,325 "cheaper" home batteries in "just four weeks" since the program commenced at the start of July. 

This article originally appeared on Yahoo News Australia at https://au.news.yahoo.com/warning-as-photo-of-10000-tesla-item-highlights-new-secondhand-trend-emerging-in-australia-230346918.html

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