COLLABORATION ON VEHICLE BATTERIES THAT CREATES
BENEFITS AT SEVERAL LEVELS
On April 22, a world-leading system with energy storage for charging vehicles was inaugurated at the hygiene and health company Essity's business center in Mölndal. The project is another example of successful collaboration in which Stena Property and the Stena Recycling company BatteryLoop have worked with the automotive industry, in this case Volvo Cars, to develop a sustainable solution for electricity supply.
When Stena Property, which owns and manages Essity’s property in Mölndal, received the request from Essity concerning a large number of charging stations for electric cars, the company wanted to find a sustainable solution and thus contacted BatteryLoop. With experience from the previous installation of a smaller energy storage plant at Fyrklöversgatan in Gothenburg – a collaborative arrangement between Stena Property, BatteryLoop and Volvo Buses – the company saw the chance to carry out an installation on a larger scale. Stena Property sees this collaboration as an important step along the way in offering its tenants a solution for sustainable and environmentally friendly electricity supply.
DRIVING DEVELOPMENT FORWARD
“By providing our customers with the opportunity to recharge their cars with solar energy, regardless of the weather, 24/7, we contribute to even more sustainable travel for Essity employees,” says Agneta Kores, managing director for Stena Property in Gothenburg. “With a battery storage plant of this scale, we can contribute to improved power control and energy storage in the building, which is a stabilizing function for an evolving power grid. We’re very much involved and we’re driving development forward, which feels very satisfying.”
CONTRIBUTES TO ZERO-EMISSION GOAL
When an electric-powered vehicle, after many years in service, is at the end of its life cycle, the battery still has much of its capacity left, sufficient to use in BatteryLoop’s energy storage plants. So instead of sending the batteries off to recycling, they get a second life.
The energy storage plant – which is made up of batteries from electric-powered cars and charged by solar panels – provides 78 charging stations for electric and hybrid cars, and 24 for electric bikes with climate-neutral electricity.
“This is a very exciting collaborative project in which we join in closing the circle and creating a sustainable eco-cycle for battery-powered cars,” says Rasmus Bergström, CEO for BatteryLoop. “We give batteries a second life in our smart energy storage system BLESS™ (BatteryLoop Energy Storage System) and commercial life is extended while reducing impact on the environment. With BLESS, we contribute to achieving the goal of zero emissions and securing the future of the environment and the next generation.”
Volvo Cars has major ambitions regarding the circular economy and is putting considerable effort into finding new business models that enable the use of batteries to be maximized throughout their life cycles.
“This project is in line with those ambitions and will provide us with new lessons about the life of batteries and how they can be used outside our vehicles”, says Susanne Hägglund, responsible for global aftermarket operations at Volvo Cars.
IMPORTANT PART OF ESSITY’S WORK WITH SUSTAINABILITY
For Essity, sustainable energy solutions are an important part of their work with sustainability.
“In Essity’s climate activities, more sustainable energy solutions are in focus, for example with renewable energy,” says Axel Thegerström Edh, who heads sustainability operations for products and services at Essity. “It is a decisive factor in our efforts to reach our science based climate targets. In this case, it is about providing sustainability solutions for our employees, where the opportunity for charging their cars at work can be critical in making the leap to a more sustainable transportation solution. Essity has also began converting its service vehicle fleet, where in practice only chargeable vehicles are allowed.”
FACTS BATTERYLOOP
- The foundation of BatteryLoop’s BLESS™ at Essity is five Volvo XC40 rechargeable batteries that provide 78 charging points for electric and hybrid cars, and 24 for electric bikes.
- BLESS is connected to 446 solar panels covering an area of 833 square meters on the roof of Essity’s building.
- The solar panels produce about 150 MWh per year, which corresponds to the annual household consumption for about 50 apartments.
- The system provides an estimated reduction of 69 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
