German company gives ‘Second Life’ to used EV batteries
A German company brings used batteries for electric vehicles to new use by stacking them in fridge-size units that houses and companies can use to store their surplus sun energy.
This week the Voltfang company – which means “Volten Catching” – opened its first industrial site in Aachen, near the Belgian and Dutch borders.
With around 100 employees, Voltfang says that it is the largest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries.
The CEO David Oudandji hopes that the Europe’s greatest economy will help to get used to fossil fuels and to be increasingly dependent on climate -friendly renewable energy sources.
While wind turbines can now be found on many roofs on the countryside of Germany and photovoltaic panels, he says that the country still has to build up on the storage capacity of the battery.
“We want to guarantee European sovereignty in energy supply by making renewable energy possible by making storage,” Oudandji, 29, told AFP.
“We can generate huge amounts of electricity from solar and wind energy, then store and spread it everywhere in Germany in a decentralized way,” he said.
“This means that the more renewable energy we use, the more storage capacity we implement, the less we need fossil gas or oil.”
Within the site, technicians received used EV batteries and test them to determine their remaining lifespan.
Those who are still found in good condition are overhauled for their “Second Life” and mounted in cupboards the size of large refrigerators – effectively huge power benches for surplus electricity.
One of the first customers is the discount supermarket chain Aldi Nord, who wants to store electricity from the solar panels on the roof for later use.
– Press clean energy –
Voltfang, founded in 2020 by three university engineering students, wants to produce sufficient systems by 2030 to store a capacity of one gigawatt hour (GWH) of electricity per year, enough for 300 houses.
It is one of the many small steps that are meant to help the decades of old “energetic” of Germany, or energy transition.
Last year, renewable energy sources covered nearly 60 percent of the electricity produced in Germany and the target is 80 percent by 2030.
A problem for solar energy and wind is what to do on days when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.
Such “dark break”, the most common in winter, have sometimes forced Germany to temporarily import the power produced by French nuclear reactors or Polish coal -fired power stations.
To guarantee a safe offer, the conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government is planning to build around 20 new gas -fired power plants by 2030.
The greens and environmental groups have this as a step back in German climate policy and fear that by 2045 the country will not achieve the goal of CO2 neutrality.
– Circular economy –
The battery sector in Europe is still intake, but is expected to grow rapidly.
“In our opinion, small -scale distributed energy assets such as battery storage will play an important role in creating efficient energy systems,” said Marc Sauthoff of the Roland Berger business consultancy.
The stationary storage market is growing exponentially in Germany: about six GWH capacity was installed at the end of2024, compared to 2.5 GWH in 2022, he said.
Voltfang hopes to be profitable next year, Oudandji said, although he admitted that there are obstacles.
Firstly, the range of used EV batteries is still small, given that most vehicles have only been on the road for a few years.
New batteries, mainly produced in China, are also being more efficient and cheaper, making it more difficult to compete against them with renovated models.
Oudsandji acknowledged that testing and refurbishing old batteries is “more complex” than just buying new ones.
“But the big advantage is that it is more durable,” he said. “It is cheaper and enables us to create a circular economy, thereby guaranteeing Europe’s independence in the supply of resources.”
