Hitachi ABB Power Grids, Groupe Renault Team Up for Porto Santo Initiative

Hitachi ABB Power Grids and Groupe Renault are working together to give electric vehicle (EV) batteries a new lease of life and support the integration of renewable energy into the grid, as part of the ‘Sustainable Porto Santo’ initiative, which was launched by the Portuguese government.

The Portuguese government aims to make Porto Santo — which is a Portuguese island in the Madeira archipelago, and home to about 6,000 people — the first smart, fossil-free island in the world. While a fundamental part of the initiative is to increase the production of renewable energy, the challenge is the unpredictable and intermittent nature of solar and wind energy.

Groupe Renault has provided the island with a sustainable energy transition platform comprising of a full ecosystem of EV solutions based on Vehicle-to-Grid technologies, and an aggregation platform to manage the flexibility provided by EVs and their batteries. When EV batteries reach the end of their useful first lives, they are either disposed, recycled, or reused, but at the end of their service life in EVs, batteries may still retain 70% to 80% of their initial capacity.

“Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ energy storage solution will be part of an intelligent electrical ecosystem for Porto Santo and ensure the complete utilization of the island’s wind and solar generation potential,” Markus Heimbach, Managing Director of Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ High Voltage business unit, said, in part.

“Integrating second life EV batteries from Groupe Renault with Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ battery energy storage solution provides the capability to store excess energy generated by the island’s renewable sources,” Yasmina Badreddine, project manager 2nd life batteries, Group Renault, said. “This way, the power stored in the batteries can be fed back into the network during periods of high demand, with smart precision.”