Solar Battery VS Car Battery

You must hear about lead acid car battery and lead acid solar battery. Most of the industrial batteries are lead-acid battery, and AC charging solar energy is also used in lead-acid battery, some solar system has the better performance of lithium battery or nickel hydrogen battery. But what are the differences between solar battery and car battery, we will discuss them here today.

Solar Battery VS Car Battery

1.Different charging and discharging ways

The electric energy of solar battery comes from the sun, but the current of charging the battery with sunlight is very small, so the area requirement of the plate is not demanded. Solar lead-acid battery requires deep cycle discharge performance and long using life, so usually it uses lead-acid gel battery. Lead-acid battery of electric vehicles does not need deep cycle and long using life, but needs large current discharge. Therefore, maintenance-free lead-acid batteries and water-added lead-acid batteries are widely used as car battery.

Solar battery generally supplies energy to street lamps and other small power with electrical appliances, so general discharge current is more stable, and it will not appear large current in a short time. The discharge current is also very small, thus it does not need thin plate technology. And solar battery requires a long floating charge life and large cycle times, so it is generally flooded battery.

Not all the car batteries are the lead-acid batteries. Large and medium-sized electric vehicles generally use lithium batteries. Small electric vehicles, such as elderly mobility vehicles, mostly use maintenance free lead-acid batteries, gel lead-acid batteries, and only a few are lithium batteries.

2.Different functions

Both solar battery and car battery are used for storing energy, but their discharge ways are different. Large current discharge for car battery, and small current discharge for solar battery. Car battery can be used in where solar battery uses, but solar battery is not suitable for the car starting.

The car battery requires large current discharge, which means when the car start, the starter needs a large current. Solar battery average discharge current is relatively stable, generally does not appear in a short period of time large current, so the car battery electrode materials are used for the lead cylindrical, while copper as electrode in solar battery.

3.Different composition

Solar battery is the application of battery in solar photovoltaic power generation. At present, there are several kinds of special maintenance free lead-acid storage batteries. They are ordinary lead-acid batteries, gel batteries and alkaline nickel-cadmium batteries. What are widely used in solar batteries mainly are ordinary lead-acid maintenance free batteries and gel batteries. Solar battery is gel battery with other ingredients (such as sodium silicate) added to a conventional electrolyte, which are safer than conventional lead-acid batteries in cars, but their self-discharge is more pronounced.

What’s more, solar battery’s charging voltage and temperature adaptability to a wider range.

4.Different advantages and disadvantages

Solar battery has the advantage of maintenance free and less pollution to the environment. Lead-acid car battery’s main advantages are stable voltage and cheap price, but its disadvantages are low specific energy (that is, the electric energy stored per kilogram battery), short service life and more daily maintenance than solar battery.

5. Different applications

Solar battery is used for solar power system and uninterruptible power supply with reliable performance, especially for unattended workstations. Lead-acid car battery’s application range is wider, which includes tractors, tricycles, automobile starting, electric vehicle power, electric bicycle battery, etc. Lead-acid batteries can be divided into constant discharge (e.g., uninterruptible power supply) and instantaneous discharge (e.g., car startup battery) according to application requirements.

Nowadays, batteries are mostly maintenance-free. Car battery is used for starting, while solar battery belongs to the energy storage type. As for the discharge characteristics of vehicles, its large current discharge time is short, but solar battery’s small current discharge time is long. Therefore, they cannot be put in the wrong place to use, otherwise the service life will be greatly shortened or use efficiency is very low.