FEATURE
THE ENERGY
TRANSITION
FACING THE DATA
CENTRE AND ICT
SECTOR COULD
THUS OFFER
UNEXPECTEDLY
GREAT
OPPORTUNITIES –
NOT IN THE LEAST
FINANCIALLY.
are now more than six months further in
and it is becoming increasingly clear how
important this project is – especially for the
data centre industry.
This project is not only about storing
energy in batteries.
In order to justify the relatively high costs
of batteries, we need to develop a business
case that is as broadly defined as possible.
In other words: the batteries should be
used in as many ways as possible so that
the investments can be recouped.
Robbert Hoeffnagel, Green IT Amsterdam
36
Issue 05
That is precisely the phenomenon that
makes this project very relevant for data
centres, which are now also discussing
the possibilities that arise from integrating
batteries and UPS systems with the
energy networks of grid operators. 80%. This decline means that the batteries
are no longer suitable for use in an electric
car and therefore need to be replaced.
A subsidiary of the Johan Cruyff Arena –
called Amsterdam Energy Arena BV – has
invested in a room filled with 61 racks full
of batteries. These come from Nissan’s
electric car – the Leaf. It turns out, however, that these batteries
are still perfectly suitable for storing
electrical energy in, for example, an energy
storage system linked to solar panels.
After a number of years, the capacity of the
batteries of these cars drops from 100% to
What to do with so many ‘useless’
car batteries?
The Amsterdam Arena has now installed
61 racks with 590 battery packs. Good for
3 MW and 2.8 MWh.
www.intelligentdatacentres.com