Nissan and Enel plan ‘second life’ EV battery storage system

Nissan EV batteries will enhance grid stability in Spain as part of the Enel Group’s “Second Life” project to help secure the continuity of energy supply to 90,000 residents.

Enel and Nissan have partnered to launch the project, combining used Nissan EV batteries at a conventional power plant in Melilla, Spain, operated by the Enel Group’s Spanish subsidiary Endesa.

A pioneering initiative in Europe, the project is based on circular economy principles, and has been selected as a “member initiative” by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Loccioni, a system integrator, secured the proper integration between batteries needed for the circular process with the back-up generator composed of 48 used Nissan Leaf batteries and 30 new ones.

“The collaboration with Enel allowed us to create a model for a battery’s second life, which can be applied in many other use cases,” says Nissan Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania region energy services director Soufiane Elkhomri.

“This is a great example of the endless possibilities that come with reusing electric vehicle batteries as part of a circular economy.”

Enel Green Power chief executive Salvatore Bernabei adds: “The development of storage technology is key if we want to foster greater renewable penetration in our energy systems, so we can truly shape the power generation of the future.”

Enel Group’s chief innovability officer Ernesto Ciorra sayswhat would have been called impossible only a few years ago became possible.

Used Nissan EV batteries provide a source of energy when they are interconnected and stored at Endesa’s Melilla facility with a power of 4MW and the ability to produce up to 1.7MWh of energy should the power plant be disconnected from the system.

The storage facility can inject energy into Melilla’s electricity grid for 15 minutes – enough time to reset the system and restart the power supply.

Enel is in more than 30 countries, producing energy with at least 90GW of installed capacity, distributing electricity through a network of more than 2.2 million km, and has about 75 million end users.

Its renewables arm, Enel Green Power, is one of the world’s largest renewable private players, with a managed capacity of around 54GW of wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower plants, also including around 300MW of storage facilities, in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

Enel X Global Retail, Enel’s global advanced energy services business line, is the worldwide demand response leader with a total capacity of around 7.7GW managed globally – which has installed 80MW of behind-the-meter storage capacity.

In addition, Enel X Way is the group’s new global platform for electric mobility, managing around 319,000 EV charging points around the globe.