Worrying about what will happen to electric vehicles’ batteries after they’re depleted might soon become a thing of the past.
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.
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.