Slide 1. Introduction.
The class develops the second life of electric vehicle batteries as energy storage at Rome-Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport and the implications for fleet management.
Slide 2. The case of Rome-Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
- The second life of electric vehicle batteries.
Second-life batteries are those that have reached the end of their automotive life but whose residual performance remains at 70-80% of their total usable capacity. This means they can be used in stationary applications, in combination with renewable energy generation systems such as solar and wind, and/or to provide services to the electricity grid. Extending the useful life of batteries means reducing their carbon footprint and increasing the amount of renewable energy in the grid.
By having an intermediate step, or a ‘second life’, between their use in electric mobility and their recycling, costs are optimized throughout the supply chain and electric cars become cheaper. Last but not least, it is a sustainable option in three ways: good for the environment, the company, and society.
Giving electric car batteries a second life is essential, not only to limit waste but also to reduce the consumption of their raw materials, which are finite.
One of Europe's most important airports has just inaugurated one of the continent's largest energy storage systems using reused electric car batteries.
This is Rome-Fiumicino's Leonardo da Vinci Airport, the largest in Italy and one of the ten busiest in the European Union. Based on renewable solar energy, this system aims to provide much of the electricity needed by the Roman airport.
- More than 760 batteries, many from the Nissan LEAF.
With 43 million passengers a year, the electricity consumption of Italy's capital airport is colossal. With the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, it has taken another step forward with this newly inaugurated Pionner system. This project has been developed by the energy company Enel and Rome-Fiumicino Airport itself.
Pionner uses a solar farm with a total of 55,000 panels, which can generate 31 GWh of electricity per year. The energy collected by these panels is not used directly, but is stored in a huge storage system based on used electric car batteries, which supply energy to the airport through a cloud-based intelligent management system.
In total, the system has 762 battery packs from manufacturers such as Nissan, Mercedes, and Stellantis. Most of them, 84 in total, are from the Nissan LEAF, which are 30 and 40 kWh. According to the Japanese brand, despite their wear and tear, the batteries from what was the first electric car to be sold on a large scale still have a useful life of between six and seven years.
The total investment amounts to €5.5 million. The system is integrated into the “Solar Farm,” the largest photovoltaic self-consumption system at a European airport.
This system, they say, provides enough electricity to supply 3,000 homes for a day. In turn, they boast that it will help reduce CO2 emissions by around 16,000 tons over the next 10 years.
- Implications for fleet management.
To achieve net zero emissions in electric vehicles, the energy consumed must come from renewable sources such as solar or wind power.
The batteries from electric vehicles that are removed from the fleet can be used as stationary batteries in our facilities to supply renewable energy to the fleet's own vehicles, our facilities, or the power grid.
Stationary batteries can be recharged with solar energy during the day, and electric vehicles can be recharged at night.
When an electric vehicle is taken out of service, we need to assess whether it is better to sell the vehicle or use the battery to store energy.
The residual value of an electric vehicle depends on factors such as the vehicle's range, the condition of the battery, the price of new electric vehicles, the technology of new electric vehicles, mileage, and age.
Once the battery has been used for stationary storage, it must be recycled.
If our company wants to implement a stationary battery project and the batteries from the fleet's electric vehicles are not sufficient, second-hand batteries or electric vehicles can be purchased.
The installation requires a large area for the solar panels and battery storage.
Before undertaking a stationary battery project, it is necessary to study how much energy we need to store. To do this, we need to know the number of square meters of solar panels, how many stationary batteries are needed, as well as the land, personnel, and necessary software and hardware, in order to determine whether it is economically viable.
In countries where there is no access to renewable energy from the electricity grid, this is a very interesting option for achieving net zero emissions.
Slide 3. Thank you for your time.
The class has developed the second life of electric vehicle batteries as energy storage at Rome-Fiumicino's Leonardo da Vinci Airport, and the implications for fleet management, see you soon.
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