Renault to install Europe’s largest 2nd life battery storage
French carmaker Renault and partners have published their plan for an Advanced Battery Storage system. They say it will become the largest energy storage system in Europe reutilising batteries from used electric vehicles. The modular system will comprise of multiple sites across France and Germany.
Renault reasons that their system is to facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources and the stabilisation of the grid within 50 Hz. On more concrete terms, their Advanced Battery Storage project aims to install “the biggest energy stationary storage system using EV batteries ever designed in Europe by 2020,” says a press release.
In numbers, they will reuse 2,000 battery packs from electric vehicles to offer a power of 70 Mw and energy amounting to 60 MWh, equivalent to the daily consumption of a city of 5,000 households.
The system will connect multiple sites in Germany and France. The first such hubs will be built at Renault facilities in French Douai and Cléon. In Germany, a former coal power station in North Rhine-Westphalia will be converted into a new energy powerhouse. They will then expand the project to ultimately reach 60 MWh by 2020.
The gradual expansion is an in-built feature of their modular model that uses EV batteries compiled in containers. Nicolas Schottey, Director of Renault’s New Business Energy programme explains the system’s flexibility: “This unique assembly will give Advanced Battery Storage the capacity to generate or absorb, instantaneously the 70MW power. This high power combined with high capacity of our solution will allow to react efficiently to all major grid solicitations.”
While other carmakers such as Daimler have been looking into similar installations, Renault is predestined for second-life applications as the company have long offered electric vehicles but more so with battery leasing. While this business model has been loosened lately, Renault continues to own many of the power packs used in EVs such as the Kangoo Z.E and Zoe.
Still, they have partners on board for the Advanced Battery Storage project, including La Banque des Territoires, the Mitsui Group, Demeter, and The Mobility House. The latter is also working with Daimler on their energy storage system in a reformed coal plant.
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