Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover partners with Wykes Engineering to recycle used vehicle batteries for use in storing renewable energy for the National Grid. Tony McDonough reports
Used Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) car batteries are now being given a ‘second life’ and are being repurposed to help power homes and businesses.
JLR, which employs more than 3,500 people at its factory in Halewood in Merseyside, is teaming up with renewable energy specialist Wykes Engineering. This project will help provide renewable wind and solar energy to the National Grid.
A single Wykes battery energy storage system (BESS), utilising 30 used Jaguar I-PACE batteries, can store up to 2.5MWh of energy at full capacity.
These batteries have been taken from prototype and engineering test vehicles. JLR aims to supply enough batteries to store a total of 7.5MWh of energy – enough to power 750 homes for a day – by the end of 2023.
After this point more containers can be created to house additional second-life batteries removed from used production vehicles in the future.
Each BESS, which is linked to an advanced inverter to maximise efficiency and manage energy, is capable of supplying power directly to the National Grid during peak hours. It can also draw power out of the grid during off-peak hours to store for future use.
Battery storage systems such as this are critical to decarbonising the grid. They can deal with rapid peaks in demand, and maximise solar and wind energy capture during sunny or windy conditions for use when needed.
As part of the technical collaboration, Wykes and JLR have achieved “seamless integration”, with no need for additional manufacturing steps or the removal of battery modules.
The batteries are simply removed from the Jaguar I-PACE and slotted into racks in the containers on-site, helping to maximise the sustainability of the project.
Second-life battery supply for stationary applications, such as renewable energy storage, could exceed 200 gigawatt-hours per year by 2030, creating a global value of more than £20bn, according to a report by McKinsey.
Reusing vehicle batteries will create new circular economy business models for JLR in energy storage and beyond.
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Once the battery health falls below the required level for these second-life use cases, JLR will recycle the batteries so that raw materials can be recovered for re-use as part of a true circular economy.
François Dossa, exécutive director of strategy and sustainability at JLR, said: “Our sustainability approach addresses the entire value chain of our vehicles, including circularity of EV batteries.
“Our EV batteries are engineered to the highest standards and this innovative project, in collaboration with Wykes Engineering, proves they can be safely reused for energy sector application to increase renewable energy opportunities.
“Using the 70-80% residual capacity in EV batteries, before being recycled, demonstrates full adoption of circularity principles.”