Northvolt offers high-performance lithium-ion cells based around proprietary Lingonberry NMC chemistry. These are available in both cylindrical and prismatic formats. Northvolt prioritizes manufacturing batteries with clean energy, and has a mission to deliver batteries with an 80% lower carbon footprint compared to those made using coal energy and a target of 150 GWh annual cell output by 2030.
Northvolt is targeting several applications for its battery storage products, including the electric mobility sector, construction industry, and commercial & industrial applications, as well as grid-scale battery storage applications.
Scania, a world-leading provider of transport solutions, including trucks and buses for heavy transport applications, and Northvolt recently showcased a very interesting application for integrating Northvolt’s Voltpack Mobile System into a mobile charging solution, demonstrating how to bring fast charging for big trucks to any location.
The winter holiday weeks, during which visitors go to Sweden’s ski resorts, presented a great opportunity for a case study on how to facilitate fast charging in remote locations like ski resorts which present unique challenges associated with a lack of charging infrastructure. Northvolt adds that this influx of visitors increases the need for trucks transporting deliveries to places like hotels, restaurants and grocery stores.
Scania, in partnership with Northvolt, provides a solution to this problem and recently showcased this between the 13th of February and the 10th of March. Scania traveled to Åre in northern Sweden with two of its electric trucks and a novel charging solution. The innovative charging solution was integrated into a container.
The charging solution is a charging unit capable of providing up to 150 kW for two vehicles coupled with a Northvolt Voltpack Mobile System which supplies the unit with electricity, providing an energy storage capacity of 560 kWh. Each Northvolt Voltpack mobile unit has a capacity of 281 kWh, therefore the solution used in this demonstration had 2 Voltpacks.
Here are some specifications of the unit:
Voltpack Mobile System Specifications
- Product name: Voltpack Mobile 281/700
- Installed capacity: 281 kWh
- Voltage: 576–797 V (707 V)
- Thermal management: Integrated liquid cooling
- IP rating: IP55
- Dimensions: 1600 x 2000 x 1200 mm
- Weight: 3000 kg
The system is mobile and scalable. Northvolt says the system scales through a central interface hub, which can connect in parallel up to five self-contained Voltpacks, each containing three liquid-cooled, industrial-grade battery Voltpack Cores. The hub also serves as an interface for applications, and houses inverter and auxiliary systems. If further power or storage capacity is needed, this can be fulfilled simply by connecting multiple Voltpack Mobile Systems in parallel.
With this solution, Scania and Northvolt show how mobile fast charging can enable electrification, anywhere, right now.
Jessica Björkquist, responsible for e-mobility at Scania Sweden, says: “An electric truck, which in this case is charged with green energy, reduces its CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to a corresponding diesel truck. With a mobile charging unit, we want to show that electrification is possible here and now and that you don’t have to wait for either network capacity or a charging post to be able to electrify.”
Northvolt also says that in a place like Åre, where grid connectivity is limited, a mobile charging solution offers a range of benefits. In addition to enabling Scania’s use of an electric truck rather than an ICE vehicle, the Voltpack Mobile System facilitates fast charging, without placing too much pressure on the local grid. Existing electricity grids are limited in their ability to provide power. Fast-charging, in particular, can place immense stress on local grids. The Voltpack Mobile System makes it possible to deploy fast EV chargers on a low-power grid. Functioning as a large high-speed powerbank, the system draws electricity from the grid and then discharges that electricity at a higher rate than the grid could on its own. They also add that it is easy to scale and relocate and the beauty of the VMS is that it absorbs energy during slow hours, and boosts chargers to transfer power at high speed.
Images courtesy of Northvolt
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