Automakers like Daimler have been eager to leverage their battery operations connected with their electric vehicles (EV) programs. Late in 2016, Daimler hired Boris von Bormann, a former top executive at Sonnen, to launch Mercedes-Benz Energy Americas to market batteries to residential, commercial and utility consumers.
Daimler says the Elverlingsen facility will provide “efficient double usage of battery systems” that will improve “the life cycle assessment” and the life cycle costs of its EV program.
The facility, built in conjunction with GETEC ENERGIE and The Mobility House, will provide “active” storage of 1,920 lithium-ion battery modules at the ENERVIE AG power station site in Elverlingsen.
Daimler called it “a fountain of youth” for the battery systems used for its EVs.
Putting the batteries through deliberate, battery-conserving charging and discharging cycles at the plant prevents exhaustive discharge which can lead to battery defects before they are potentially used in Daimler EVs. At the same time, the energy storage system can provide “an attractive business case” by securing compensation for providing the grid with primary balancing power.
The Elverlingsen plant is the third such storage facility for Daimler. The automaker opened a 12.8 MWh second life battery storage plant in Elverlingsen in 2016, and in 2017 brought a 17.4 MWh replacement part energy storage facility in Hanover online.
When available, former generating plants make good sites for large energy storage facilities because of their location at a critical juncture on the grid and their access to grid connections.
In 2016, Younicos selected the former Roosecote coal- and gas-fired station in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, U.K., for a 49-MW battery storage system that will be owned and operated by Centrica and used for frequency regulation.
That same year, AES Energy Storage brought a 20 MW, 20 MWh storage facility online at the site of Indianapolis Power & Light’s former coal-fired Harding Street station in Indianapolis.
Daimler is not the only automaker to focus on energy storage.
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