A battery reaching the end of its first life has four exits, and they are worth wildly different amounts. This grades all four on the same basis — net value in US$ per kWh of nameplate at the retirement decision — applies the hard exclusions first, and writes out the reasoning. Nothing leaves your browser: there is no upload, no account and no request to a server.
Six numbers and three flags. If you only have a rough state of health, start there — the tool will still tell you which input is binding.
Measured capacity as a share of nameplate. If you only have the BMS estimate, use it — and treat the result as a first order of magnitude.
(max − min) capacity across modules
Every figure below is a market assumption, not a measurement. Defaults are indicative references dated August 2026. Change them to your own contracted numbers and the answer changes with them — that is the point.
Negative if the recycler charges you
How the routes are priced. Keep in service and refurbish are valued as deferred replacement: each additional year of service avoids one year's worth of the replacement capex, and refurbishment buys back part of the life that cell imbalance is consuming. Second life is the resale of the remaining capacity, less repurposing and logistics. Material recovery is the recycler's gate price, less logistics. Same basis, so the four numbers can be compared directly.
Estimation modelled from the values you entered. Nothing was uploaded, and this page did not contact a server.
What this is and is not. This is a first-order screen built from published criteria and the assumptions shown, not a condition assessment. It cannot see module-level imbalance, thermal history, firmware, or the things a site visit finds. A real grade uses your operating data at module resolution and ships with a p05–p95 band and a signed evidence package. What it can do honestly is tell you which of your inputs is deciding the answer — and that is usually enough to know whether the conversation is worth having.
Two numbers per route, produced separately on purpose. Suitability asks whether the route is technically defensible. Value asks what it pays. When they disagree, the tool says so rather than blending them into one comfortable score.
Before anything is scored, four conditions remove routes from consideration entirely. A route that is excluded is shown as blocked with a zero, not quietly down-weighted.
All reuse routes are excluded. A pack with an incident history cannot be placed on a third-party market and no insurer will underwrite it.
Below the floor at which any second-life application recovers its integration cost.
The pack cannot hold its rated C-rate. Only material recovery remains.
The pack is limited by its worst modules. Refurbishment or recycling only — repurposing a pack this unbalanced transfers the problem to the buyer.
Weighted criteria, stated openly so you can disagree with them.
| Route | Dominant criteria |
|---|---|
| Keep in service | Remaining runway to the service floor 45 % · cell spread 22 % · resistance 18 % · age 15 % |
| Refurbish | State of health 35 % · spread as an opportunity 30 % · resistance 20 % · records 15 % |
| Second life | Health band centred on the service floor 40 % · spread 25 % · resistance 20 % · records 15 % |
| Material recovery | Low health 40 % · resistance 25 % · spread 20 % · age 15 % |
Two things worth knowing about these weights. Keep in service is scored on the runway the model computes — years left before the asset reaches your service floor — not on raw state of health, because the same 78 % means different things under different duty cycles. And the second-life score peaks exactly at that service floor and falls on both sides: above it the asset is still doing its first job and repurposing destroys value; below it the integration cost stops being recoverable. A low second-life score is therefore not bad news — it means read the route that scored high instead.
From 18 February 2027, an industrial battery above 2 kWh placed on the EU market must carry a digital battery passport reachable by QR code, covering chemistry, carbon footprint, recycled content, state of health and due diligence — under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. A repurposed pack sold into the EU is a battery placed on the market. Without a record of how the pack was operated, the second-life route closes on paperwork regardless of the pack's condition, which is why records carry a quarter of the second-life score here and why the record is worth building while the asset still runs.
Send us one asset approaching the end of its first life and we will grade it properly — module resolution where your data allows, uncertainty bands, and a signed evidence package a buyer or a collector can verify without trusting us.
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