A German start-up is giving old e-scooter batteries a second life as storage for businesses. Fraunhofer ISE says about one million working e-bike and e-scooter batteries end up as waste early in Germany every year, even though many still have most of their capacity. EDENenergy, based in Freiburg, turns them into modular commercial storage systems.
The first system
- 70 kWh: The first unit was delivered to a customer in mid-October.
- 112 batteries: It combines 112 retired e-scooter batteries, each tested before use. electrive says they are connected in series.
- Better than expected: Of about 350 batteries tested, some still had well over 90% of their capacity, electrive reports. EDENenergy had planned on a state of health of 80%.
The technology
The key is power electronics developed at Fraunhofer ISE. Co-founder Florian Bierwirth told Fraunhofer ISE that it «allows different storage units to be connected and communication with different modules to be established, without the batteries having to be taken apart» (translated from German). Bierwirth and fellow co-founders Daniel Seeger and Hannes Kurzmann all worked in the institute's power electronics department.
For now, electrive says, EDENenergy mainly sources batteries of the same type from large suppliers such as e-scooter and e-bike fleet operators. In future, different battery types could also be combined, it adds.
Who it is for
Bierwirth says the 70 kWh size is aimed first at mid-sized local companies that have solar panels but no storage (translated from German). Fraunhofer ISE adds that municipal utilities could also use the systems to raise self-consumption, cap load peaks or trade power. electrive reports that systems of up to 300 kWh are planned.
