BMW’s Used Battery Power Plant

BMW Built a Power Plant from Old Electric-Car Batteries; The carmaker is exploring ways to find new life for its spent batteries.

Michael Reilly, September 26, 2016 (MIT Technology Review)

“…Electric vehicle makers face the looming question of what to do] with all the spent batteries? One answer: turn a huge pile of them into a grid-scale power plant…[Lithium-ion batteries are continuing to fall in price and could be nearing a tipping point that will see electric-vehicle sales take off…But like any batteries, they wear out. The rate at whichthey currently decline [to where a car’s range would be depleted] puts their lifetime for powering electric vehicles in the neighborhood of eight to 10 years…[BMW’s just-completed grid-scale storage facility in Hamburg, Germany, will use batteries from 100 cars to store 2.8 megawatt-hours of energy and deliver] up to two megawatts of power [to the grid during times of peak demand] at the flip of a switch…” click here for more

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