German firm gives 'second life' to used EV batteries

AFP | Aachen

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A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy.

This week, the company Voltfang -- which means "catching volts" -- opened its first industrial site in Aachen, near the Belgian and Dutch borders.

With around 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries.

Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it will help Europe's biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables.

While wind turbines now dot Germany's countryside and photovoltaic panels are found on many rooftops, he says the country still needs to build up battery storage capacity.

"We want to ensure European sovereignty in energy supply by enabling renewable energy production through storage," Oudsandji, 29, told AFP.

"We can generate enormous amount so f electricity from solar and wind energy, then store it in a decentralised way all across Germany and distribute it," he said.

"This means that the more renewable energy we use, the more storage capacity we deploy, the less we need fossil gas or oil."

Inside the site, technicians receive used EV batteries and test them to determine their remaining lifespans.

Those still found to be in good condition are reconditioned for their "second life" and fitted inside cabinets the size of large refrigerators -- effectively huge power banks for excess electricity.

Among the first customers is the discount supermarket chain Aldi Nord, which wants to store power from its rooftop solar panels for later use.

Clean energy push

Voltfang, founded in 2020 by three university engineering students, aims to produce enough systems by 2030 to store a capacity of one gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity per year, enough for 300 homes.

It is one of many small steps meant to help Germany's decades-old "Energiewende", or energy transition. Last year, renewables covered nearly 60 percent of electricity produced in Germany, and the target is 80 percent by 2030.

One problem for solar and wind is what to do on days when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

Such "dark lulls", most common in winter, have at times forced Germany to temporarily import power produced by French nuclear reactors or Polish coal plants. To guarantee a secure supply, conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government plans to build around 20 new gasfired power plants by 2030.

The Greens and environmental groups have denounced this as a step backwards in German climate policy and fear the country will not meets its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.