Porsche AG has given new life to used electric vehicle batteries. The company has developed a 5 MW energy storage system using used car batteries.
The system is located at the automaker’s plant in Leipzig, Germany. It consists of 4400 individual battery modules divided into 4 battery containers. The entire system, including the battery packs, is designed for a service life of more than 10 years. According to the company, individual battery modules can be replaced individually if necessary. The system is capable of operating with an overload of up to 20% for a short period of time.
The energy storage system is built from used Taycan batteries, which were taken from pre-production and factory electric vehicles at the end of their service life. Four battery packs are separately connected to an inverter and transformer in a medium voltage system. The battery modules, which were used in the grueling daily operation of the test vehicles, were installed in the energy storage system without any technical modifications.
Electricity for the storage system is partially generated by the plant’s own solar power plants with a peak capacity of 9.4 MW. When peak loads occur, the storage system helps to smooth them out.
«We wanted to create energy storage capacity for the Leipzig plant to make it even more economical and increase its self-sufficiency,» said Jonathan Dietrich, project manager for battery storage.
He claims that it made perfect sense to continue using batteries from pre-production Taycan vehicles instead of recycling them.
This project is expected to help other Porsche buildings with similar systems and capabilities in the future. The fact is that such a system allows to reduce the peak load, which is becoming relevant today. This approach not only reduces overall energy costs, but ideally can also reduce the need for extended grids.
Source: interestingengineering
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