An energy storage system from UK-based Connected Energy, made using repurposed Renault EV batteries. Image: Connected Energy.
Could we start seeing ‘third life’ or even ‘fourth life’ energy storage, with EV batteries deployed in multiple different systems in their lifetime?
McKinsey expects some 227GWh of used EV batteries to become available by 2030, a figure which would exceed the anticipated demand for lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) that year. There is huge potential to repurpose these into BESS units and a handful of companies in Europe and the US are active in designing and deploying such ‘second life’ systems.
Companies in the space are already saying that thanks to the variety of uses cases of a BESS it is possible to start planning for ‘third life’ systems, as Ralph Groen chief commercial officer of Norway-based Evyon,…