
As a part of an announcement of an updated circular strategy Volvo Cars has revealed two new second life projects where batteries from the car maker's hybrid vehicles are used.
The first one is a solar-powered and ESS-backed charging solution for electric cars and bicycles in a large office building of the hygiene product company Essity in Gothenburg, Sweden. The energy storage system, which will go live in April 2021 use five batteries from Volvo's first EV the XC40 Recharge and provides 78 charging points for electric and hybrid cars and 24 for electric bicycles. The system is connected to 446 solar panels that cover an area of 833 square meters on Essity’s roof. The solution has been designed and commissioned by Batteryloop, a company specialized in second life solutions within Stena Recycling.
The second one is a 1 MW/250 kWh ESS designed and commissioned by the energy company Fortum in partnership with electrical engineering company Comsys, using 48 battery packs, also from hybrid vehicles. The system is placed at a large hydropower plant and will enable the plant to deliver frequency response services as the battery can start to operate within milliseconds seconds before the hydropower plant can react and take over.
The announcements are found here: