Case Lempäälä & Rudskogen | Electric Vehicle Batteries as Energy Storage
Authors: Mathias Winther Thorsen, ECO STOR AS & Fride Vullum-Bruer, SINTEF Energy
Electric vehicle (EV) batteries are considered to be at the end of life when energy storage capacity reaches approximately 80% of original. This implies that they can no longer be used in an electric vehicle. However, they can still be used as an energy storage in other applications. TREASoURcE studies the possibilities of using second life battery packs for energy storage to avoid recycling the batteries back to original elements with significant energy consumption and material losses in the process.
TREASoURcE evaluates the potential for use of second life electric vehicle batteries as energy storage systems and demonstrates their functionality and sustainability in three demo cases of energy storage for load leveling and solar power optimization. The demonstrations aim to increase knowledge of the batteries’ second life and their functionality and how stationary batteries can be used to balance electricity demand. The intended result is to accelerate the market uptake of this technology.
Demo Sites
A stationary Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) built with used electric vehicle batteries is commissioned at three demo sites in Norway and Finland. The selected demo sites are:
- Rudskogen Motorsports Centre in Viken County, Norway
- The municipally-owned Lempäälä House in Lempäälä, Finland
- Trosvik Skole elementary school in Fredrikstad municipality, Norway.
Rudskogen is a large motorsport centre that was selected by the Norwegian government as the national motorsport arena in 2005. The centre went through a major upgrade and renovation in 2011. At present, additional investments will ensure new building infrastructure that will significantly improve the quality of facilities at Rudskogen, including installation of solar panels. Rudskogen will have a BESS with a rated capacity of 120 kWh and rated power of 60 kW.
Lempäälä House is a modern building completed in 2020 in the municipal centre of Lempäälä. It is often referred to as a common living room for citizens, offering several services such as Lempäälä’s main library, a centralized service corridor, a restaurant and a gym. Energy efficiency and environmental issues have been strongly considered throughout the building’s construction phase and life cycle calculations have been used to guide the design solutions. Lempäälä House will have a BESS with a rated capacity of 80 kWh and rated power of 40 kW.
Benefits of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
There are multiple economic, environmental, and social benefits to using the BESS. The system stores excess energy from solar panels which in turn is used to cut power peaks for the facilities. In this way, the BESS can be used to shift energy consumption to reduce the energy cost and provide stabilization for the entire power grid. From an environmental perspective, the use of second-life batteries helps to reduce environmental impacts and save critical minerals and other natural resources by extending the life cycle of the batteries.
The battery systems will be operating and collecting data for research until 2026. The operation of the systems will be optimized throughout this period based on the data and experience. After the project period, the battery systems will likely still be operational to fully utilize the resources, and the system can be easily relocated if necessary.