- Lumos has signed a deal with the Hinckley Group to recycle lithium batteries.
- Hinckley’s facility is located in Ojota Lagos and can handle about 20,000 tons of e-waste annually.
- Africa’s battery demand is set to increase to 15 gigawatts by 2030
Lumos Global BV has signed a deal with the Hinckley Group to recycle lithium batteries in West Africa. CEO of Lumos, Alastair Gordon noted that this was the first of its kind in the region. Lumos’ deploys solar systems that include a 5kg lithium battery. Before this agreement, the company has stored expired batteries in warehouses in the past years. The increasing growth of off-grid services following the pandemic has emphasised the need for recycling end-of-life batteries.
According to Gordon, Lumos grew 39% in Q4 2020. To date, the company has installed solar systems for over 150,000 customers and intends to reach 1 million customers in the next four years. This means that there is an immediate need to properly dispose of used batteries and prevent environmental contamination. Lumos retrieves the unit or batteries once solar systems reach their end-of-life, or become faulty. this deal will enable the company to dispose of them sustainably. So far, Hinckley has received 10,000 batteries for recycling from Lumos.
Hinckley’s recycling processes will reduce the box and battery cells to powder making them easier to dispose of and less dangerous. Hinckley’s facility is located in Ojota Lagos and can handle about 20,000 tons of e-waste annually.
Africa’s battery demand is set to increase to 15 gigawatts by 2030 especially as governments implement decentralised energy-focused electrification policies, such as the five million solar home systems set to be deployed in Nigeria, battery demand is set to increase. . The systems need no infrastructure to provide immediate power capacity.