Renault has announced the launch of its Advanced Battery Storage program, a stationary storage system for energy developed exclusively from EV batteries.
The system will have a storage capacity of at least 60MWh, making it the biggest system of its kind ever built in Europe. The first facilities will be developed in early 2019 on three sites in France and Germany: at the Renault plants in Douai and Cléon and at a former coal-fired plant in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The storage capacity will then be gradually expanded over time to contain the energy of 2,000 EV batteries. The expansion could see the system exceed 60MWh.
The system is designed to manage the difference between electricity consumption and production at a given time, in order to increase the proportion of renewable sources in the energy mix. This means maintaining the balance between offer and demand on the electricity grid by integrating different energy sources with fluctuating production capacities.
“Our stationary storage solution aims to offset these differences: it delivers its reserves to a point of imbalance in the grid at a given time to reduce the effects,” says Nicolas Schottey, director of the Groupe Renault New Business Energy program. By helping to maintain the balance of the grid, the OEM believes the stationary storage system will boost the economic attractiveness of low-carbon energies.
This stationary storage system is built using EV batteries compiled in containers. The system uses second-life batteries, as well as new batteries stored for future use in standard replacement during after-sales operations.
In other Renault news, the OEM has also unveiled the EZ-Pro, an autonomous, electric, connected and shared robo-pod concept designed for last-mile delivery.
“Renault EZ-Pro shows our vision of last-mile delivery integrated with the ecosystem of smart cities of tomorrow and the needs of professionals. This concept is a solution that would unlock countless opportunities for our various partners,” said Ashwani Gupta, Alliance senior vice president, LCV.
