Vehicle-to-grid energy storage begins operation in Amsterdam

Arena, named after football legend Johan Cruyff, has turned to Nissan, Eaton and Mobility House for green solutions.

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology has been put into use at the Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, with energy infrastructure including a 3MW battery energy storage system installed on site, allowing visitors to charge their cars at the stadium and supply power back to the grid.

The energy solution, which will reportedly go live at the stadium in mid-2018, includes new battery modules and second life battery packs equivalent to 148 Nissan Leaf batteries from automaker Nissan, engineering from Eaton, and a control and energy management system from integrator Mobility House.

Now, V2G supplementation is provided by a 3MW/2.8MWh energy storage system, 1MW of rooftop solar PV, and 15 charging points, where the power from the vehicles is fed back into the stadium’s electrical infrastructure.

“This is the next stage of innovation to achieve the Dutch vision of sustainable power generation and advance the energy revolution,” said a statement released by Mobility House.

Amsterdam city councillor Laurens Evans unveiled the first bidirectional electric car charger at the stadium. Eventually, all 2,000 parking spaces at the JCA will be "progressively equipped with smart charging infrastructure", and Mobility House said electric car batteries will "help store electricity from renewable energy sources and thus relieve pressure on the grid".

Ajax, a football club that has long lived in the stadium, plays in the Champions League with many enthusiastic fans, so night matches at the stadium can require extremely high power loads from the grid, which requires electric vehicle batteries to alleviate this situation through the use of V2G technology.

V2G is being heavily promoted by the European Union, and Amsterdam aims to become the continent's leading "V2X" city. While plug-in hybrids are typically required to carry at least 15kWh of batteries, and high-end electric cars such as Tesla carry up to 90kWh each, a barrier to V2G technology is the reluctance of automakers to make lithium-ion batteries work in this way under warranty. Nissan is thought to be the first major automaker to do so.

(Original source: Energy Storage News New Energy Network Comprehensive)