Formula E – Battery Recycling Technology Assessment

Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. 

Battery storage technology is set to disrupt the energy marketplace and will increasingly shape the energy generation sector for the foreseeable future. The European Union estimates the battery storage market to be worth €250 billion by 2025.

Pure energy (REGen) Ltd, together with our Technology Partner, Genista Energy Ltd, worked together to propose a Second Life Battery Storage (2LBS) Strategy for Formula E electric cars, with the objective to maximise the economic value of current Formula-E battery storage technology through suitable applications and within a variety of commercial energy networks.

The proposed Formula E 2LBS strategy was developed as a means of identifying value-based solutions to reduce grid energy consumed and associated carbon footprint, as well as providing potential customers with increased security of energy supply. With rapid response, low cost, long lifetime, high power, and energy efficiency Battery storage technologies can be distributed throughout the grid and can therefore be effectively utilised in grid-level energy storage.

The 2LBS strategy presented described a scalable process to deploy reconditioned battery storage created to represent a template in a Formula E pathway towards net zero emissions. Promoting a second life battery storage strategy for Formula E batteries improves both environmental and economic value derived from this technology before final recycling becomes necessary.

Photo by Fabrizio Russo on Unsplash