RENAULT

Brand creates bigger energy storage system in Europe

The recycling of batteries poses some problems for manufacturers, because if on the one hand they can recover up to 97% of the materials used in their manufacture, on the other hand it is an expensive and polluting operation. So nothing better than arranging a new occupation for the old batteries of electric vehicles, which means joining two or three and helping to save on the energy bill from home, or a few hundred or thousands and solve the problem of excess energy produced - not consumed - with some plants or factories. :This re-use of batteries Renault calls Second Life and has launched the home system, intended to feed the network at night, to take advantage of the lower tariffs, or to recharge through, for example, solar panels mounted on the roof of residences. Now the French brand has evolved into mega-storage facilities designed to prevent or control consumer spikes that could disrupt the local power grid and is preparing to create the largest energy storage system (ESS, Energy Storage System ) from Europe.
Interestingly, the ESS of Renault will not be located in one place, but in three, namely the factories of the brand in Douai and Cléon in France, and a former coal-fired power station in Germany. The three facilities will be up and running by 2020 and will consist of about 2,000 used Zoe batteries with different capacities. In total, the installed capacity of these stationary batteries will be 60 MWh, much higher than the 3 MWh installed by Nissan at the Ajax stadium in the Netherlands, or the 16.5 MWh built by BMW in the United Kingdom in support of a wind farm. However, it is a bit far from the more than 1,000 MWh of ESS that Tesla already has installed, which represents about half of the capacity that exists around the planet (around 2.3 GWh, according to GTM Research).



Autonews