Volvo has inaugurated an energy storage project made up of connected lithium-ion batteries previously used in the Swedish automotive manufacturer’s electric buses.
The “energy warehouse” consists of 14 lithium-ion e-bus batteries, which are installed in a battery chamber and connected to create a 200kWh storage pack, which has been fitted to a Riksbyggen apartment complex in Gothenburg that “aims to be Sweden’s most innovative and sustainable housing project”.
The storage pack will be implemented to cut the apartment complex’s power consumption peaks by storing energy bought from the grid at periods of low demand, and to store or sell surplus solar energy generated at the property.
This project part of a larger research effort— being conducted in collaboration with Göteborg Energi, Riksbyggen, and Johanneberg Science Park— to “examine electricity storage in apartment blocks that have their own electricity production via solar panels”.
“We know that electric bus batteries have good potential for other applications such as energy storage after the end of their life in public transport. What we are examining is exactly how good that potential is”, commented Ylva Olofsson, project coordinator. “Use of the batteries in an energy warehouse gives them an extended service life which in turn means better resource utilisations and less environmental impact.”
The research project is being conducted in support from the EU-project IRIS Smart Cities, a five-year long project financed by the EU’s Horizon 2020, which will have provided €80 million in research and innovation funding by the end of its seven year duration up until 2020.
