Reused car batteries power an energy storage facility in an airport in Italy

With used batteries from three major car manufacturers, Enel built the largest energy storage system of this kind in the Aeroporti di Roma, powering it with a photovoltaic plant, built in parallel with runway three at the airport.

This project reused 762 batteries from Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis (with brands like Chrysler and Citröen), and Nissan.  In total, the PV system has 2.5 megawatts of installed capacity and 10 megawatt-hours of storage capacity, estimated to last between 10 to 15 years.

During the inauguration of the facility, Francesca Gostinelli, head of Enel X Global Retail, commented that the reused batteries are adequate and have around 80% of the residual energy, as PV Magazine reports. 

The project was named Pioneer (airPort sustaInability secONd lifE battEry stoRage) and was estimated to cost 5.5 million euros, partially funded by the European Union Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).The airport operator has a plan to reduce its consumption from the electric grid and use more renewable energy, with a pipeline of 60 megawatts by 2030.

With this energy storage system, Enel estimates a reduction of 16,000 tons of CO2 during 10 years of operation. According to Enel, this is the first industrial-scale facility to integrate heterogeneous batteries into a single energy storage system, which was made using optimisation software and an architecture designed to operate with different battery packs. This makes this kind of project a scalable model to use batteries at the end of their lives.

“Pioneer thus inaugurates a scalable model that is not only capable of ensuring smarter management of green energy resources, but also sets a benchmark for the ability to valorise materials and devices at the end of their life,” commented Enel.