Germany’s national rail company, Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Kia have partnered to create second life battery energy storage systems from used electric vehicle batteries.
Encore, DB’s corporate startup, which already provides a battery take-back service across Europe for recycling and extending battery life, has unveiled a prototype battery storage facility at EUREF-Campus in Berlin, made entirely from reused Kia Soul EV battery modules.
“It's more urgent than ever for us to save power,” said Berthold Huber, DB’s board member for Infrastructure. “Our new second-life battery banks offer a solution that is also sustainable. And that makes it an attractive option for any industry.”
Kia’s focus on end-of-life processes and resource regeneration has led it to seek alternatives to the recycling of used EV batteries in favour of Second Life projects which extend the battery life through new applications.
“With our success in the electrification of Kia models, we also take responsibility for the batteries beyond their lifetime in the car,” said Jason Jeong, president at Kia Europe. “The pioneering partnership between Kia and encore | DB shows that we regard batteries as a valuable resource in terms of a sustainable circular economy.”
The battery energy storage system at the EUREF-Campus in Berlin functions as part of the Micro Smart Grid, a power grid in which different energy sources, consumers and storage systems are linked intelligently.
The partnership’s aim is to reduce reliance on the grid through predictable energy flows and increase the share of renewable energy use across the campus.