As companies around the world begin focusing more on how they can use less energy and lower their impact on the environment, we have seen a few companies optimize the amount of energy they use. A fairly recent energy optimization project has been the partnership between the German company, Energy2Market GmbH, and BMW at the car company’s battery farm in Leipzig.
For e2m, this battery farm and being able to collaborate with BMW helps solidify their reputation as one of the biggest Virtual Power Plants (VPP) in Germany. Over the last few years, e2m has been working “on commercially viable solutions for industrial large-scale battery facilities, the integration of battery facilities into wind parks and sub-aggregation concepts for small accumulators of solar power.” Being able to make this work a reality with BMW bodes well for the future.
The battery farm is located in Leipzig at the BMW Group factory. Right now, this is the largest battery facility in the world. The storage system is mainly comprised of 700 BMW i3 batteries, most of them in their “second life.” By buffering energy, such as from wind power systems, the factory can optimize energy management at a local level. Outside of the factory, the battery farm can help balance power for the public grid and lead to greater stabilization at that level.
The two companies came together and offered greater insight into how this technology works. They stated that: “within the factory, the battery farm is integrated into all energy flows via a BMW IT solution, while it is also connected to the e2m VPP via a standardised interface. In addition to the locally autonomous PBP control system, this interface also permits the real-time transmission of all the information to the e2m VPP for further optimisation of any trading options.”
The technology being utilized at the battery farm presents plenty of opportunities for decent returns and is already marketed. In addition to the battery farm, e2m and BMW have three other technologies on the market. These two companies will likely to continue to work together toward the goal they share: the continued use of renewable energies in an intelligent manner.
The partnership between these two large businesses brings home the point that we all need to focus on how to better pursue the use of renewable energy. There are plenty of alternative energy sources out there and we must keep working on ways to improve them.