Enel inagurates 10 MWh second-life battery project at Italian airport

Italy’s largest second-life battery energy storage system was officially launched at Rome-Fiumicino airport yesterday.

State-owned gas and electric company Enel’s 2.5 MW/10 MWh Pioneer project comprises 762 battery packs and modules. Half the site’s batteries came from Mercedes-Benz’s; electric vehicles (EVs) from Stellantis – which includes Chrysler and Citroën among its marques – supplied around 30% of Pioneer’s batteries, and the balance came from Nissan cars.

Airport management company Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) collaborated on the project, which also drew on the expertise of Germany’s Fraunhofer research institute.

Rome-Fiumicino already boasts the largest self-consumption solar project at a European airport and Pioneer will be integrated with that “Solar Farm” facility.

Some €3 million ($3.4 million) of Pioneer’s €5.5 million construction cost came from the European Union’s European Agency for Climate, Environment and Infrastructure (Cinea), via its Innovation Fund Small Scale Projects call for proposals, issued by the European Commission in 2020.

Enel Head of Innovation Nicola Rossi said yesterday that energy storage costs which “in 2010, cost €1,400 per kilowatt, today cost between €100 and €130 per kilowatt.” Those dramatic price reductions, he said, have seen the 30 GWh or so of battery energy storage systems worldwide in 2022 rise to 100 GWh a year later, and 170 GWh last year. Rossi added, “[energy] storage is growing at a rate of around 70% per year.”

Francesca Gostinelli, head of Enel X Global Retail, said, “Pioneer interacts with an optimization software that has several databases available: operation of the [airport] photovoltaic system, real-time [electricity] consumption of the airport, operation of the batteries. All of this is optimized to implement actions at the best time and provide energy when there is the greatest need, in terms of consumption.”

Reuse

Rossi explained, during a media site visit to the installation, the reused electric vehicle batteries “are still adequate and have 80% of the residual energy, to be able to provide this service.”

He told pv magazine Italia, “We have not yet planned another similar project, however we expect a storage pipeline of around 2.3 GW in the next three years worldwide and we will evaluate on a case-by-case basis where this option is also convenient.”

He added, of Pioneer, “We think  it could last between 10 and 15 years, so a little less than a new [battery] plant but still very significant and enough to repay the investments.”

Rossi said, “At that point they will be completely exhausted because from this type of application we discharge them to a minimum functional level and they can be directed towards a recycling process.”

ADR Chief Executive Marco Troncone said the airport management company plans to almost triple its solar generation capacity to more than 60 MW so a similar growth in energy storage capacity could be useful.

“We are waiting for technological innovation to bring the costs of [energy] storage systems, even non-innovative ones like this one, to sustainable levels,” he said. “In the meantime, our solar farm will still work in conjunction with our traditional generation capacity, which today is methane-based but will be converted to biomethane by 2030.”

The site visit was also attended by Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso; Mayor of Fiumicino Mario Baccini; ADR President Vincenzo Nunziata; ADR Chief Aviation Officer Ivan Bassato; Enrico Loccioni, president of Italian measurement technology company Loccioni; Claudio Eminente, central director of economic programming and infrastructure development for the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC); and Cinea Innovation Fund Project Advisor Annachiara Vercellin.

From pv magazine Italia.