New Charging Station in Spain Uses 2nd-Life Electric Bus Batteries
The first charging station in Spain to use second-life electric bus batteries for energy storage is now online.
The batteries come from Irizar electric buses. The charging stations are being produced and installed by Ibil. And the locations for the initial projects are Repsol service stations.
The are 50 kW fast charger stations (rather than 150–350 kW ultrafast charging stations), and in addition to the batteries, they are also reusing some power electronics from the Irizar electric buses.
The partnership goes far beyond Irizar, Ibil, and Repsol, though. “Ingeteam, Cidetec and Gureak also collaborated on the project. The latter company employs people with disabilities from Gipuzkoa and they carried out the entire industrial assembly of the storage module. The project also had support from the Basque government and the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa through the Hazitek and SmartMobility Industry R&D programmes, respectively.”
Why put energy storage at an EV charging station? Well, one answer is very clear this week — if there happen to be blackouts in the area, energy storage can keep the charging station operational as long as the stored electricity lasts. See this story from yesterday if you don’t believe that could be an issue: Travelers Beware: Rolling Blackouts In Texas Are Affecting Fast Charging (+Safety Tips).
Energy storage onsite can also bring EV fast charging to more areas, cut down on high peak-demand charges, and provide other benefits. Here’s Irizar’s list of the core benefits:
- It makes it possible to install quick charging points (50 kW) in places where it would otherwise not be feasible because of a lack of sufficient electrical power or where, even if it is viable, the technical difficulties of connecting to the grid would require an excessive increase in investment.
- The power of the grid needed to provide services is reduced by 70%. A 50 kW quick charging point can thus be put into operation using only a 15 kW grid connection.
- It can be installed almost anywhere because of the small footprint of the storage module, which is less than a square metre.
- Infrastructure operating costs can be lowered significantly, by up to 50% primarily due to needing a lower power service.
- It provides a second life to electric bus batteries and promotes sustainability and the circular economy.
Storage-connected EV charging stations have been a growing trend in the past few years, and seemingly a very sensible one, but adding in the reuse of batteries and power electronics from electric buses is an especially innovative and cool (and climate cooling) aspect of this project. I’m eager to see if the involved companies scale up this approach to a much larger extent and if it becomes a broader solution implemented by other companies and in other regions.
Featured image courtesy of Irizar.
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