The purpose of the project is to determine the impact of solar cells and electrical vehicles on the future electricity grid and distribution network. Future electricity grids will be affected differently than it does today. Therefore, it is important to determine the impacts so that the current electricity distribution system can be developed and redesign to achieve the future demand. In Sweden, government has changed rules and laws in order to make it easier for private sector to invest in renewable energy sources. Our project focused on the impact of the solar cells and electric vehicles on the low voltage electricity distribution. Solar cells have become more popular than ever and that leads to many countries in utilizing their energy needs from solar and the same is going to happen here in Sweden. It is needed to find out how the impacts on the low voltage grids will be if many private individual install solar panels in their own homes and what will happen when they start to supply electricity, which is excess from the production of their solar cells, back to the grid? What should be done in order to maintain the electricity’s quality in term of voltage? Meanwhile, electric vehicle popularity rises every year, which means that electricity demand will rise proportionally with the number of electric cars in the country. Should something be done with the power supply to meet the power needs of electric cars? Is it possible to use the electrical car battery as a backup power? How electric vehicle charging’s behavior will impact on the low voltage? In this project, data and pictures has taken from different sources and consolidated for analysis purpose. This thesis contained information about solar radiation, solar cells, electric vehicles, and batteries, rules for installation of solar cells regulations, electricity grids, and electrical power quality, results of researching and eventual solutions for expected problems. / <p>Presentation har gjort med båda svenska och norska språket . </p>

With the rapid increase of renewable energy in the electricity grids, the need for energy storage continues to grow. One of the technologies that are gaining interest for utility-scale energy storage is lithium-ion battery energy storage systems. However, their environmental impact is inevitably put into question against lead-acid battery storage systems. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) to contrast the environmental impact of utilizing lithium-ion batteries and lead-acid batteries for stationary applications, specifically grid storage. The main tools in this study include Microsoft Excel for the life cycle inventory and OpenLCA for life cycle modelling and sensitivity analysis. In this research, a cradle-to-grave LCA for three lithium-ion battery chemistries (i.e. lithium iron phosphate, nickel cobalt manganese, and nickel cobalt aluminium) is conducted. The impact categories are aligned with the Environmental Footprint impact assessment methodology described by the European Commission. The standby grid operation scenario is considered for estimating the environmental impacts, where the batteries would deliver 4,800 kWh of electric energy throughout 20 years. Consequently, the functional unit will be in per kWh energy delivered. The lead-acid battery system has the following environmental impact values (in per kWh energy delivered): 2 kg CO2-eq. for climate change, 33 MJ for fossil resource use, 0.02 mol H+-eq. for acidification, 10-7 disease incidence for particulate emission, and 8x10-4 kg Sb-eq. for minerals resource use. Going back to the lithium-ion batteries systems, for the climate change and fossil resource use impact categories, the best performer is found to be the nickel cobalt aluminium (NCA) lithium-ion battery, with 46% and 45% less impact than lead-acid for the respective categories. On the other hand, the nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) was the best for the acidification and particulate emission impact categories with respective 65% and 51% better performance compared to lead-acid batteries. Finally, for the minerals and metals resource use category, the lithium iron phosphate battery (LFP) is estimated to be the best performer, which is 94% less than lead-acid. To conclude, the life cycle stage determined to have the largest contribution for most of the impact categories was the use stage, which then becomes the subject to a sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis was done by varying the renewable contribution of the electricity grids in the use phase. Overall, the lithium-ion batteries systems have less environmental impact than lead-acid batteries systems, for the observed impact categories. The findings of this thesis can be used as a reference to decide whether to replace lead-acid batteries with lithium-ion batteries for grid energy storage from an environmental impact perspective. / Med den snabba ökningen av förnybar energi i elnäten, fortsätter behovet av energilagring att växa. En av de tekniker som växer intresse för energilagring på nyttan är litiumjon batteriets energilagringssystem. Emellertid, deras miljöpåverkan ifrågasätts oundvikligen mot blysyrabatteri lagringssystem. Därför syftar denna studie till att göra en komparativ livscykelanalys (LCA) för att komparera miljöpåverkan av att använda litiumjonbatterier och blybatterier för stationära applikationer, särskilt för nätlagring. I denna forskning genomfördes en vagga-till-grav-LCA (eller cradle-to-grave i engelska) för tre litiumjonbatterikemi (litium järn fosfat, nickel kobolt mangan, och nickel cobalt aluminium). Effektkategorier anpassades till miljökonsekvensbedömning metoden som beskrivs av Europeiska kommissionen. Det användningsfall scenariot för batterierna var standby läget, där batterierna leverera 4800 kWh elektrisk energi för 20 år. Följaktligen den funktionella unit är i ‘per kWh levererad energi’. Blysyrabatteriet hade följande ungefärliga miljöpåverkansvärden (i per kWh levererad energi): 2 kg CO2-eq. för climate change, 33 MJ för fossil resource use, 0.02 mol H+-eq. för acidification, 10-7 disease incidence för particulate emission, and 8x10-4 kg Sb-eq. för minerals resource use. Tillbaka till litiumjonbatterierna, för climate change och fossil resource use resursanvändnings kategorier, den bäst presterande var litiumjonbatteriet nickel kobolt aluminium (NCA). Det hade 46% och 45% mindre påverkan än blysyrabatteriet för respektive kategori. Å andra sidan, var nickel mangan kobolt (NMC) bäst för acidifcation och particulate emission kategorier. De är 65% och 51% bättre än blysyra för kategorierna. Slutligen, litium järn fosfat batteriet (LFP) är det bäst presterande för resource use of minerals and metals kategoriet, vilket det är 94% mindre än blysyra. Avslutningsvis, det livscykelstadier som var bestämt att ha det största bidraget för de flesta av påverkningskategorierna är användningsstadiet, som sedan blir föremål för en känslighetsanalys. I slutändan, litiumjonbatterierna ha mindre miljöpåverkan än blybatterier i detta projekt, för de observerade slagkategorierna. Resultaten av denna avhandling kan sedan användas som referens för att avgöra om bly-syrabatterier ska ersättas med litiumjonbatterier för energilagring ur ett miljöeffektperspektiv.