Ibil & Irizar to give electric bus batteries a second life
The bus maker Irizar and the charging infrastructure provider Ibil have concluded a cooperation agreement to give EV batteries a second life. Ibil will use spent batteries from Irizar’s electric buses as stationary energy storage.
The new storage solutions will in turn back up charging stations for electric cars, which Ibil installs at Repsol petrol stations, among other places across Spain and Portugal. Irizar considers the agreement a win-win situation as the sizeable electric bus batteries are usually replaced once capacity is down to 80 per cent. The company assumes the lifespan can be up to 15 years although other estimates talk about 7 – 8 years.
In any case, Ibil will then use the batteries to provide a backup at charging station installations, mostly at Repsol charging stations. Repsol has a stake in Ibil as it set up the company in 2009 together with EVE, the Basque Energy Entity (Ente Vasco de la Energía) to create a charging network for electric vehicles among other things. Likewise, Ibil and Red Eléctrica have agreed to promote ultra-fast charging for which a battery backup could be helpful.
Irizar and Ibil have not installed an energy storage system yet nor have they given any forecast. Business has been good for Irizar though. Last year, the company opened a new facility in Aduna, Spain, that has a capacity to make up t 2,000 electric vehicles a year reportedly. Besides, Irizar has received orders from all over Europe for its hybrid and electric buses.
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