Connected Energy has second life EV batteries at the heart of its battery energy storage journey – hear our individual team members’ stories…
The European Union’s recent Battery Regulation has placed the spotlight on the full life cycle of batteries. The new law ensures that batteries are collected, reused, and recycled in Europe, supporting a shift to a circular economy.
At Connected Energy, we’ve been championing the reuse of EV batteries for over ten years – driven by our mission to reduce their carbon footprint. We asked some of our team to tell us about their work across a number of articles…
On developing a successful supply chain:
“Our supply chain all started with our first major OEM partner, Renault. It was a very straightforward relationship in the beginning – they supplied the batteries and we got to work. But now we have a much more intricate partnership, it’s much more of a collaboration, working together to enhance battery performance within our E-STOR as well as working on future plans. It’s an approach that I believe we can take forward with other OEMs now that they are proactively looking to engage with the second life movement.”
On using AI to enhance performance and safety:
“Just as we are driven by maximising the value of the resources within a battery, we have identified a way to maximise the data in our possession. The result is the development of a technical solution to drive forward the use of second life batteries as energy storage, helping to promote sustainability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness in battery reuse.”
On building relationships with battery partners:
“This is where Connected Energy comes in, by helping OEMs to see the opportunities and the business case. Rather than seeing an excess of electric batteries as a costly, overlooked issue, we can help give them purpose, a second life. Connected Energy was very forward-thinking in this regard. For the last ten years, the company has proven the concept, perfected all the elements of our system’s solution – from safety to software – and now we’re able to ramp up for when batteries are available at a much larger scale.”
As the world strives towards net zero, we have no choice but to change the way we do things. For us, that means disrupting the current throwaway economy and seeking better ways of doing things; reusing existing materials rather than continuing to damage the planet. That’s why all our battery energy storage systems use second life EV batteries.
By extracting the value from the finite resources already embedded in them, we double their working lives. We are driven by helping to solve the challenges of the energy trilemma by disrupting the throwaway economy. Bringing huge environmental benefits to our partners and our customers.
Battery energy storage systems (or BESS as they are sometimes known) are systems that can capture and store energy – either from the grid or from renewables such as solar and wind power – and then use that power when it is needed.
Their use on a commercial scale has grown over the last few years, primarily due to two key reasons: the proliferation of solar PV for commercial premises and the growth of electric vehicles which has led to an increased electricity demand needed for charging.
While working on several electric vehicle and charging infrastructure trials, our awareness of grid connection costs and concern about the disposal of end-of-life batteries sparked the pioneering idea. Could an electric vehicle battery be repurposed as a stationary energy store?
Since 2013 our team has been driven to prove the concept of repurposing EV batteries as a commercially sustainable energy store. Strong partnerships across the globe have enabled us to develop our E-STOR products, which are now powering businesses across the UK and Europe. The rest, as they say, is history.
Interested in learning more about second life batteries? Our recent whitepaper explores the technicalities, safety, benefits, and economic potential of repurposing EV batteries for energy storage. Download today to find out more.
