Second life specialist Batteryloop is acquired by new ESS operator Repono

The Swedish second life specialist Batteryloop, founded as an entity in the Stena Metall Group has been acquired by Repono, a ESS operator, funded by EIT InnoEnergy. Batteryloop will become the core asset in the company which has an ambition to become a large player in the European ESS market.

Repono will own and operate large ESS used both behind and in front of the meter. The company is applying a portfolio-based approach that it claims can be replicated across regions.

An important idea with Repono is that the company should be able to collaborate with the other 46 investments in EIT InnoEnergy's portfolio and also use the consultancy/investor's network such as the European Battery Alliance. In addition to EIT InnoEnergy, Repono’s backers (not clear if this means direct investments or supply partnerships) include Schneider Electric, SIPLEC, E Leclerc, Stena Metall, Boryszew Group and NTM GmbH. Through the acquisition of BatteryLoop, Repono will from the beginning have a team of 25 employees and operate energy storage systems in the Nordics. The plan is to deploy 100 GWh of energy storage in Europe by 2030.

CES Comment

Batteryloop was born out of Stena Recycling's experiences of dealing with EV batteries and a way to capture more value through second life solutions. As many second life specialists the company became so successful on the application side that its ambitions grew faster than the available stock of affordable end-of-life batteries and focus was more and more directed towards overstock, R&D batteries and even first life batteries. In the communication of Reponos the second life focus is not even mentioned.

This development is something we have seen several times, not least in the case of Finnish Cactos or Norwegian Ecostor.

Another parallel to Cactos is that Reponos is focusing on ownership of the systems which means that they are monitizing the actual energy rather than the systems in them selves. From a circular perspective this means that batteries also can be optimized over time and the skills in repurposing and second life might rather become important by the end of life in the ESS rather than in EVs.