Decommissioned Audi EV batteries used in 4.5MWh stationary energy storage system in Germany

Energy Storage News ^ | Andy Colthorpe

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Used lithium-ion batteries taken from carmaker Audi’s electric vehicles (EVs) have been repurposed into a ‘second-life’ stationary energy storage system by energy company RWE at a project in Herdecke, Germany.

RWE has deployed the system, which has a capacity of around 4.5MWh, at the site of its pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant at Hengsteysee reservoir in the North-Rhine Westphalia region of north-west Germany.

The decommissioned batteries are taken from development models of Audi’s e-tron EVs, which have a maximum range of 252 miles when used for transport. They still had about 80% of their residual capacity remaining when taken out of use, RWE said in a press release issued just before the end of last year.

In their second-life as components in a battery energy storage system (BESS), the batteries could be usable for up to 10 years and their low cost is an advantage over using brand new devices, RWE said.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

EV batteries are often retired with substantial remaining capacity, so such "second life" applications have the potential to significantly increase their life-cycle Energy Rate of Return.

Their use in grid frequency stabilization applications is especially interesting as this is one of the situations in which battery storage is first reaching installed costs low enough to represent significant competition to gas peaker generation.

https://www.energy.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/495163/SIPS-2020_Executive-Summary-extract.pdf

[eartick]

I hope Germany has a lot of Mexicans moving there. If so, they should have plenty jumper cables to get the lights back on…..

[The Antiyuppie]

This is a pretty good idea. Those batteries are still very usable and in that application may last a LOT longer than they did in automotive applications. Mercedes is planning for similar uses.

[Yardstick]

Pretty clever seeming. Reminds me of reusing spent nuclear fuel.

I wonder if batteries eventually stabilize to a lower capacity, like say 50% of original, and then kind of stay there, or do they taper down to zero. IOW is there a plateau or a slope.

[Steven Tyler]

...their low cost is an advantage over using brand new devices...

Audi prolly pay folks to take the batteries rather than pay a green fee at the landfill

[LegendHasIt]

4.5MWH is a lot of batteries.

But the concept is hardly new. The home-made Electric Bike and ‘power-wall’ builders have been reconfiguring and repurposing E-car battery packs for years.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Typical LI capacity degradation curve.

Detailed discussion:

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/cp/d1cp00359c

[Paal Gulli]

Which means that German Audi owners are spendthrifts who’ll buy a new battery and discard the old one while it still has substantial (80%) remaining usable capacity.

[Yardstick]

*bump*