November 21, 2017 | News Brief | Connected Energy, has announced a £1.3million collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover, WMG, at University of Warwick and Videre Global to establish key components of a second life battery value chain. The project is co-funded by an Innovate UK grant, awarded in October. Its E-STOR energy storage technology will be adapted to integrate second life Jaguar Land Rover batteries, with other work to be undertaken by WMG on the use of varied second life battery modules.
Reuse of electric vehicle batteries is compelling circular economy innovation. Second life enables greater exploitation of the carbon and energy embedded in the manufacturing of the batteries, adding to the sustainability credentials of electric vehicles as well as the electricity system. Using second life batteries also reduces system costs, making energy storage systems financially viable for a wider range of end users.
WMG is the academic partner to the project, a department of the University of Warwick with a pedigree in energy storage research. Dr. James Marco at WMG said, “WMG is very excited to extend their expertise in “first-life” battery system design, control and manufacture towards the realization of ‘2nd-life’ battery solutions that will keep the battery in useful service for longer and mitigate, in part, the need to recycle batteries in the medium term. WMG will focus on the creation of innovative battery management software that will facilitate the active management of used vehicle batteries, within a grid storage solution. Outside of the UK, the ability to effectively manage an ad-hoc collection of battery technologies in a holistic manner is particularly pertinent to the deployment of localised energy storage solutions within developing countries.”
With the support of Videre Global, the consortium aims to assess the viability of developing world applications, offering lower cost and high reliability second life battery storage systems. Videre Global is a specialist in smart grid systems and energy solutions in the developing world.
“This project is vital as part of our research into understanding the best ways to support rapidly developing micro-grid markets to provide access to energy in some of the world’s poorest communities. This project will also help us to understand and plan for the sustainable provision of electric vehicle charging points in remote places together with a responsible approach to the end-of-life recycling, reclamation and safe disposal of EV batteries in the future,” said Craig Morgan, MD of Videre Global.
