This nine-month project, supported by Innovate UK grand funding, demonstrates the use of upcycled lithium-ion batteries from electric buses as stationary energy storage at Â鶹´«Ã½AV campus.
  • Dates2 November 2020-present
  • SponsorInnovate UK
  • Funded£100,000
  • PartnersBrill Power Ltd, AceOn Group Ltd
Electric buses on Cranfield campus

Brill Power, AceOn Group and Â鶹´«Ã½AV are collaborating on this Innovate UK project to design, build and install a smart, second life battery system at Cranfield's DARTeC building, made from upcycled electric bus batteries. The battery system will be connected to solar PV arrays and an inverter to feed solar energy back to the local grid at the campus. This will help Cranfield decarbonise its energy use by maximising the use of renewable solar energy. The project addresses the following challenges:

  1. Reassembling the lithium ion batteries without damaging battery cells;
  2. Developing innovative BMS with distributed control features to ensure that the performance of second life batteries are not limited by the weakest cells;
  3. Demonstrating the economic viability of second life batteries.