Volkswagen is starting to work on large battery storage systems for the power grid. Next year, the first so-called “power center” to temporarily store green electricity will go online in Germany, Chief Technology Officer Thomas Schmal announced on Friday in Berlin. The location will be in northern Germany, and the groundbreaking ceremony will take place in the next six to eight weeks.
The system will be operated by the Elli division of the VW charging network. The capacity will initially be 700 megawatt hours, and in the future it can be expanded to one gigawatt hour, Schmal said. That is enough to replace a gas power plant. Further electricity storage systems will follow. The group wants to open a new business area in a growing market.
A buffer for wind and solar power
The systems are designed to act as a buffer for wind and solar power and thus help stabilize the power grid. “Our investment in stationary battery storage is therefore a significant contribution to the sustainable transformation of energy supply,” said Schmall. If there is an excess, wind turbines and solar systems will still have to be turned off again and again. This may change with large battery storage systems.
VW assumes that the need for such battery storage systems in Germany will increase tenfold in the coming years. So far, a total of one gigawatt hour of storage capacity is only available in the Federal Republic. “We’re doubling that with just this one powerhouse,” Schmal explained.
A second use for old electric car batteries
In addition, Europe’s largest carmaker is opening up another application area for the batteries of older electric cars, which no longer have enough capacity in the car, but which can still absorb enough electricity for large-scale storage. Schmoll admitted that the first system would initially have to use brand new batteries because there is not yet enough of a return from electric cars. “They are only now coming to us in the near future, the goal is to specifically use discarded electric vehicle batteries in electricity storage systems before they are recycled in the third step.”
Last year, VW opened a smaller energy center in Kassel, with which the Elli division has since participated in power exchange trading. It uses unused battery systems from the now-discontinued E-Up small electric car. Other car manufacturers, such as BMW and Audi, are also using old batteries as sustainable enrgy storage devices, but so far only in their power supply or charging stations.
