Page 12 - ESJ – ENERGY STORAGE JOURNAL

NEWS

VW end-of-life battery plans include

building a German recycling centre

The question of what to do alone applications or quick or 3,000 vehicle batteries The plant in Salzgitter is
with aging battery packs EV charging stations — or — will be shredded, the to be followed by further
from electric vehicles hangs send them to a pilot recy- material dried and sieved, decentralized recycling
over the e-mobility indus- cling plant the German firm allowing the extraction of plants.
try, but vehicle OEM Volk- aims to build in Salzgitter ‘black powder’, which con-
swagen Group announced by 2020. tains the cobalt, lithium, See page 46 for our in-
its answer on February 20: Packs unfit for second-life manganese and nickel. depth look at the lithium
packs will be re-used or applications will be recy- To this end the company ion recycling industry
sent to its new battery recy- cled with raw materials re- is also building a pilot plant
cling plant in Germany. turned to the manufactur- for battery cell production
The company aims to re- ing process chain. in Salzgitter, together with Munich Re battery
use packs as flexible charg- Recycled batteries — ini- the Center of Excellence for insurance scheme
ing stations — in stand- tially 1,200 tonnes per year, batteries. makes project
financing easier
Packs unfit for second-life applications will be recycled with raw German insurance
materials returned to the manufacturing process chain. firm Munich Re has
launched an insurance
product that allows
40MWh of energy storage could large-scale energy storage
developers to guarantee
halve Massachusetts’ black-outs their project’s long-
term performance, the
company announced on
The Massachusetts Depart- 10 hours of back-up pow- A second planned 15 MW March 7.
ment of Public Utilities has er in the winter and up to lithium ion battery project Munich Re believes the
granted power firm Ever- three hours at the height of on the island of Martha’s insurance will make it
source permission to go summer. Vineyard will replace die- easier for developers to
ahead with plans to deploy Provincetown town man- sel generator supply during obtain project financing
40MWh of lithium ion bat- ager David Panagore, said periods of high demand, because it caps the
teries to deliver emergency the project would eliminate providing a backup to sup- maximum warranty costs
power in Massachusetts, roughly half of the area’s plement power supplied incurred in the repair or
US, on April 5. power outages entirely. from the mainland by four replacement of defective
The first project is a The ESS will defer 13 undersea cables. or weak battery modules.
25MW/38MWh system to miles of power distribution If approved by MDPU, The cover is primarily
deliver black-start services line construction. Eversource expects to start aimed at major projects,
and offset high electric us- The project should start work this year on the first such as those delivering
age in Provincetown, Truro at the end of the year and part, a 5MW with the ad- grid stability and
and Wellfleet. be in service by the end of ditional capacity installed peak shifting services.
The battery will provide 2020. by the end of next year. In a second phase,
the product will be
FPL reveals plans to develop introduced onto the
mobility market to insure
world’s biggest lithium ion ESS performance of batteries
in electric vehicles.
The coverage can
Plans to replace two fossil to begin serving customers smaller battery installa- optionally be expanded
fuel generation units with in late 2021. tions across the state, nu- to protect selected
the world’s biggest lithium The project is part of merous solar power plants investment projects
ion energy storage system a modernization plan to and upgrades to existing directly, so that the
were unveiled by Florida accelerate the retirement combustion turbines at insurance will pay even
Power & Light Company, a of two, 1970s-era natu- other power plants to re- if the manufacturer that
subsidiary of Florida-based ral gas generating units at place the lost 1.6GW of issued the warranty files
NextEra Energy, on March FPL’s neighbouring power generating capacity. for insolvency within the
28. plants. FPL remains poised to warranty period.
The FPL Manatee Energy The Center will cover a eliminate its only remain- The first customer for
Storage Center includes 40-acre parcel of land and ing coal plant in Florida by the new insurance
409MW of storage charged will enable the distribu- the end of this year, follow- product is the US redox
by an existing FPL solar tion of 900MWh of power ing the closure of two coal flow battery
power plant in Manatee when completed. plants in Jacksonville in manufacturer ESS Inc.
County. The system is due FPL is also planning 2016 and 2018.

10 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2019 www.energystoragejournal.com