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.
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.
Energy storage onsite can also bring EV fast charging to more areas, cut down on high peak-demand charges, and provide other benefits like-
- The power of the grid needed to provide services is reduced by 70%.
- 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.
This is a PRNewswire Feed; edited by Clean-Future Team