Daimler and subsidiary Accumotive are partnering a power firm to build a ‘living storage’ li-ion battery storage facility using new EV battery packs that will then become replacement batteries for EVs.
Built in partnership with Stadtweke Hannover AG (under the name Enercity), the 15 mWh facility, in Herrenhausen, Germany, will use around 3,000 new EV packs to make the facility one of the largest storage projects in Europe.
As well as balancing the grid, the plant will act as a spare parts storage facility for EV battery systems by regularly cycling the batteries, a necessary function to better preserve them until they are used as replacements in vehicles.
Using the batteries in this way also avoids the cost of their long-term storage.
“Grid-balancing,” said Daimler’s R&D Communications division rep Madeleine Herdlitschka, “is different from use in EVs. If you use it ‘softly’, you don’t have to fear losses.”
Enercity is one of Germany’s largest municipal energy suppliers, supplying more than 700,000 people with electricity, natural gas and drinking water.
The Herrenhausen plant is its largest site, and its battery storage facility is due to be operational by the end of the year.
* The German carmaker and Accumotive have also entered a long-term sales agreement with Solar Technology AG (SMA) for a joint storage system.
SMA’s ‘Flexible Storage System’ will be backed by Daimler’s 20 kWh lithium-ion technology for use in private households, and will be available on the German market from this March.
