Mercedes-Benz is driving the lithium-ion battery technology used to power thousands of hybrid and fully electric vehicles into homes for a new range of stationary energy storage units.
Up to eight Energy Storage Home wall-mounted or floor-standing battery modules, with an energy content of 2.5kWh each, can be combined to produce an energy storage unit with a capacity of up to 20kWh, the company said.
According to the company, private households that combine renewable energy sources with the system “can increase their self-consumption of generated energy to as much as 65%… bringing about their own private energy revolution”.
Mercedes-Benz Cars’ head of development electrics/electronics and e-drive, Harald Kröger, said: “Over the coming months, we will continue to step up and expand sales both in Germany and on the international market.”
The cost of the residential systems depends on the components of packages chosen by individual customers, Mercedes-Benz said.
The lithium-ion batteries are manufactured by a subsidiary of Germany’s Daimler AG – Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE. Daimler entered the stationary battery storage with its subsidiary in 2015.
“The concept devised by Daimler Business Innovation provides for a variety of applications,” Daimler said. The systems are scalable, so the lithium-ion battery units can be deployed “both in large-scale industry and in private homes”.
“Eventually, battery modules with a total capacity of over 29MWh will be connected to the grid as part of this and marketed on Germany’s primary energy market together with specialist partners,” Daimler said. “The storage units serve to balance energy fluctuations in the German national grid.”
Meanwhile, Daimler said it has invested some €500 million ($545 million) in building a second battery factory at Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE’s site in Kamenz, Eastern Germany, which is set to start operations this summer.
