Los Angeles: EVgo, calling itself America's largest public fast charging network for electric vehicles (EVs), announced the launch July 10 of the first commercial installation of second-life battery storage at a public DC fast charging station, located in Union City, California.
EVgo has integrated second-life BMW i3 batteries to store energy from the grid generated during peak solar hours and later use that stored energy to fast-charge EVgo customers during periods of high demand. In addition to reducing curtailment of solar or wind power, the project also commercially demonstrates the reuse of EV batteries for grid benefit.
"The increased use of second-life battery technology is an exciting development, keeping fast charging of clean electric vehicles affordable and insulating the grid from spikes in electricity demand," said Austin Brown, Executive Director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy. "Reusing batteries as backup for charging is a win-win for the economics and the environmental benefits of EVs."
The EVgo Union City site began operating earlier this summer and already has two 50-kilowatt (kW) DC fast chargers. The second-life battery system integrates two BMW i3 battery packs into a single housing. Each second-life battery pack has a capacity of 22 kilowatt-hours (kWh) and when combined with a 30 kW inverter offers a 30 kW/44 kWh energy storage system capable of demand charge management.
In a separate article June 27, Bloomberg Businessweek observed, “Finding ways to reuse EV batteries is becoming more urgent as the global stockpile is forecast to exceed the equivalent of about 3.4 million packs by 2025, compared with about 55,000 this year, according to calculations based on Bloomberg NEF data.
“The decade-by-decade forecast by BNEF is staggering. By 2030, there will be a 25-fold surge in battery demand for EVs. Automobiles have overtaken consumer electronics as the biggest users of lithium-ion batteries, according to Paris-based Avicenne Energy.
“By 2040, more than half of new-car sales and a third of the global fleet—equal to 559 million vehicles—will be electric. By 2050, companies will have invested about $550 billion in home, industrial and grid-scale battery storage, according to BNEF.
“While those replaced batteries can’t run a passenger vehicle, they’re ideal for less-demanding tasks such as storing electricity from solar panels and wind turbines, and hoarding power from a regular grid connection when prices are low.”