New Cooperation: Mercedes-Benz Energy and Beijing Electric Vehicle want to jointly develop second-life battery storage systems
Even in China, the industry is ardently addressing the topic of "Second Life" for vehicle batteries, especially as it can massively increase the value creation of used car batteries. Accordingly, the partners are pooling their expertise and resources, laying the foundation for the development of a sustainable, renewable energy economy. In a first concrete step, the partners aim to jointly establish the first 2nd-life energy storage in Beijing, utilizing retired electric vehicle batteries from BJEV. The project serves as a basis for potentially further future collaborations.
Gordon Gassmann, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Energy, comments:
"The expansion of regenerative and thus fluctuating energy production is rapidly increasing worldwide. The growing distance between the place of energy production and the place of energy consumption also presents today's power grids with major challenges. This creates extensive opportunities for stationary energy storage systems worldwide. 2nd-life battery storage systems are an absolutely meaningful addition, as the continued use of retired vehicle batteries also allows us to use valuable raw materials sustainably."
Beijing Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. is already one of the leading manufacturers of pure electric vehicles in China with more than 420,000 battery-electric vehicles on the market. Their batteries thus constitute one of the largest pools worldwide and offer diverse potential for 2nd-life applications in the field of stationary energy storage. In 2016, BAIC founded the company Beijing Articore Battery to explore the use of used batteries. Beijing Articore Battery is currently involved in researching mobile communication base stations, renewable energy gas stations along highways, and mobile energy storage systems. The research of microgrid energy storage is also planned.
The spectrum of large-scale storage applications from Mercedes-Benz Energy ranges from peak load balancing and black start (independent startup of the power plant from the grid) to uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The company particularly focuses on applications in the 2nd-life and spare parts storage sectors. Together with its partners, Daimler has already connected three large-scale storage units with a total of around 40 MWh of energy from automotive battery systems to the German power grid.
Furthermore, just a few weeks ago, Mercedes-Benz Energy, in collaboration with the transmission network operator TenneT, demonstrated that automotive battery storage systems can take on tasks of large power plants and significantly contribute to grid stabilization and system recovery after a power plant failure. The cooperation with the Chinese partner BJEV now also paves the way abroad for the Daimler subsidiary. With extensive tests and simulations, Mercedes-Benz Energy engineers will demonstrate in the coming months how electro-mobile energy storage can efficiently and sustainably support the Chinese power grid in terms of fluctuation and power outage management.
What does this mean?
Second-life storage systems are becoming increasingly important in China, and since Daimler is already cooperating there with Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. (BJEV), or BAIC, this step makes perfect sense.
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