Renault, Powervault and M&S Energy have teamed up to trial a home stationary energy battery storage system based on second life electric vehicle batteries.
Powervault will install 50 trial units, powered by Renault’s second life batteries, in the homes of customers who already have solar panels installed. The trial will explore the technical performance of second life batteries as well as customer reaction to home energy storage to help develop a roll-out strategy for the mass-market. The trial will be run with eligible customers of M&S Energy, plus social housing tenants and schools in the South East. The trial will start next month (July 2017) and last one year.
The partnership should reduce the cost of a Powervault smart battery unit by 30%, which Powervault hopes will bring home energy storage to the tipping point of mass-market roll-out in the UK.
Joe Warren, managing director of Powervault, said: “Homeowners and brands are now looking to benefit from the smart power revolution. It’s only a matter of time before a Powervault becomes as common in households as a dishwasher.”
Nicolas Schottey, program director for EV batteries and infrastructures at Renault, added: “Thanks to this home energy storage partnership with Powervault, Renault is adding a new element into its global strategy for second life batteries, which already covers a large number of usages from industrial to residential building and districts.”
Batteries used in electric vehicles usually have a lifetime of 8 to 10 years. The batteries can still be used for stationary applications after this; Powervault estimates that Renault batteries will have up to 10 years of additional useful life in a home battery system.
M&S Energy will also participate in the trial, in order to understand the benefits for customers. Jonathan Hazeldine, Head of M&S Energy, commented: “With the Powervault trial, we now have a great opportunity to help our customers reduce their impact, and ultimately their energy bills, by understanding how we can make smart energy storage work for them.”
Crowd-funding campaign
Powervault also launched a crowd-funding campaign on CrowdCube to raise equity (qualifying for EIS relief) to accelerate the mainstream roll-out of Powervaults across the UK. Powervault’s business plan sees it selling 30,000 units by 2020, which equates to 15,000 EV car batteries.
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