autoevolution
 

Renault to Build Europe’s Largest EV Battery Energy Storage Facility

Worrying about what will happen to electric vehicles’ batteries after they’re depleted might soon become a thing of the past.
Renault Advanced Battery Storage facility 1 photo
Photo: Renault
Renault, a carmaker that has been, alongside Alliance partner Nissan, at the forefront of the battle to find new uses for electric car batteries announced on Tuesday its most ambitious project yet.

In the early months of 2019, at three locations in France and Germany, Renault will power up the first facilities that will use second-life batteries from electric cars as electricity storage mediums. The 60 MWh facilities – the equivalent of the daily consumption of 5,000 average households - will feed power back into the grid at times of peak demand, to prevent dangerous fluctuations.

To make the project work -a project called Advanced Battery Storage – Renault will use up to 2,000 EV batteries stacked in containers. Combined, they will be capable of absorbing or generating the huge amount of power at a moment’s notice.

“Our stationary storage solution aims to offset these differences: it delivers its reserves to a point of imbalance in the grid at a given time to reduce the effects,” said in a statement Nicolas Schottey, Renault’s director of New Business Energy.

“This high power combined with high capacity of our solution will allow to react efficiently to all major grid solicitations.”

Second life batteries are to become the object of the Gold Rush of the future. According to a study by London-based research group Circular Energy Storage, the global market for second life batteries could grow to $1.3 billion in 2018. By 2025, it will most likely triple in size.

Power-wise, energy storage systems that use second life batteries could generate 42 GWh of power. As per the results of the study, a 100 MWh facility with 7,000 Nissan Leaf batteries could generate $6,7 million in annual revenue.

With an expected life cycle of five years, second life batteries could become an important additional source of revenue for carmakers.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
press release
About the author: Daniel Patrascu
Daniel Patrascu profile photo

Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories