A fresh breeze and sunshine — the best weather for earning really good money with renewable energies in Germany! Theoretically at least. In practice, idle wind turbines show that this calculation does not yet work on some days. The problem is that the energy can be produced but not stored or used where it is actually needed due to a lack of capacity. Instead of receiving money, generators in some cases pay to have energy taken from them. — For companies that are looking for new strategies to deal with their old batteries anyway, this is the right moment to consider building their own battery storage systems!
Just a few months ago, the energy crisis resulting from the war of aggression on Ukraine caused us particular concern about the issue of energy shortages. At the same time, a lot of energy is lost in Germany: 8 billion kilowatt hours from renewable energies, especially from offshore wind farms, could not be fed into the grid — and consumed — in 2022 due to grid bottlenecks. The proportion of unused energy is also increasing in solar systems.
Not good conditions. After all, according to the German government’s plans, around 80 percent of electricity consumption is to come from renewable energies as early as 2030. For electricity producers, the current situation means a loss-making business in the worst case. If demand and generation do not match, they have to shut down their plants or pay minus prices to have the energy taken from them.
But what is the actual reason for this? Mainly due to the lack of infrastructure. There is a lack of overland power lines, but especially of storage capacities and in general of strategies to store energy not only for days, but at best until the winter months here in Germany. The practice is therefore that neighboring countries, depending on the current situation, have to be paid to stabilize the grid by supplying or buying electricity from us.
So, better not to invest in renewable energies? Yes, the energy transition is right and important. What is needed, however, are holistic strategies. The solar system on the company’s own roof is not enough. If you really want to act independently, you need your own storage capacities and concrete plans for the use of self-generated energy — within the company, but possibly also in cooperation with neighboring districts.
The use of used batteries from vehicles can play a key role in this. In Freiberg, Saxony, the company JT Energy Systems is already demonstrating how it works. The company, which manufactures energy systems for intralogistics, produces its own electricity via a photovoltaic system and also helps stabilize the grid by providing Saxony’s largest battery storage system since the beginning of 2022, built from used forklift batteries of its own manufacture — and monitored with NOVUM technology.
