Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. recently announced the total global shipment of its solar power charged eneloop rechargeable batteries reached 150 million at the end of December last year.
The eneloop range was launched in November 2005 and is now available in over 60 countries worldwide. Originally, the battery could be recharged 1,000 times but improvements over the years have seen that extended to 1,500 times says Sanyo.
The batteries are pre-charged at its factory in Japan via solar power under the Green Power Certification System.
Sanyo says a fully-charged battery is capable of holding 75% of its initial capacity even after 3 years of storage. At the end of their serviceable life, the batteries can be recycled.
Small batteries may be convenient, but they also come with a heavy environmental footprint. According to an example from Sanyo, over 1.47 billion batteries were sold in Germany in 2007 and over 90% of these were single-use “disposable” type dry cell batteries. This translates to 26.000 tons of battery waste plus packaging in a single year. Even after collection efforts to reduce the amount heading to landfill ,only 11,000 tons of disposable batteries were reclaimed compared to the 26,000 tons sold.
The growing popularity of rechargeable batteries such as the eneloop are expected to make some substantial headway in addressing the world’s battery waste problem.
Sanyo is certainly no stranger to incorporating solar energy in its business. Sanyo HIT solar panels have achieved a great deal of success for the company and are a popular choice for home solar power systems in Australia due to their high efficiency and heat tolerance.
