A pilot project is starting in Finland, which will investigate the reuse of electric car batteries in solar energy storage.
The pilot is part of the European Union-funded Treasource project, which is coordinated by the Technology Research Center VTT. There are a total of 17 project partners from six European countries.
Batteries are tested in the Lempäälä house in Pirkanmaa, Lempäälä municipal center. Another similar pilot will be implemented in Norway in Rudskogen, a motor sports center located in the southern part of the country. Accumulators made from used electric car batteries will be installed at pilot sites during the summer of 2023.
The project collects more research data on the reuse of batteries. Electric car batteries are considered to be at the end of their useful life when their capacity drops to 80 percent of the original. Then there is still a lot of unused capacity left in them, which can be used for other applications, such as energy storage.
With the help of batteries, it is possible to even out electricity consumption peaks and store surplus electricity produced by solar panels. In turn, the energy stored from overproduction can be used when the sun is not shining and the panels are not producing electricity.Stock up. The Norwegian Eco Stor supplies the battery, of which the example version is shown in the picture. Picture: Eco Large
In addition to the cost benefits, the batteries improve the building’s energy self-sufficiency, reduce the load on the local electricity network and increase the stability of the network, the announcement lists. Reuse extends the life of batteries and saves the earth’s critical mineral resources and reduces material waste.
“The pilot immediately sounded interesting and the utilization of demand flexibility is a very current topic. Our already energy-efficient Lempäälä building is well suited as a pilot site, because the pilot site was expected to e.g. own solar power plant”, says Ulla Palo, the developer manager of the service area of Lempäälä municipality’s community
“We are looking forward to the results of the pilot, which we can also use in our future projects.”
The battery systems are in use and collect data for research until 2026. The operation of the system is optimized based on the data and experiences collected throughout the pilot. The battery systems have plenty of capacity left at the end of the project, so they can be moved to be used elsewhere if necessary.
