Old electric vehicle (EV) batteries will get a second life as they will be used to decarbonise the operations of Cranfield University.

That follows a partnership of the university with Connected Energy that will see Cranfield campus accommodate three containers, each housing 24 second-life Renault Kangoo car batteries.

The system is expected to help the site balance its energy use while benefitting from a new solar farm and an air source heat pump on a district heating network to reduce dependence on the gas-combined heat and power system (CHP).

One of the containers will take excess solar generation at the weekends and deliver this back to the campus on Monday.

The project is being funded with a £5 million grant under the BEIS Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

Gareth Ellis, Cranfield University’s Energy and Environment Manager, commented: “This grant will be the start of completely reimagining how we balance our energy on site.

“We will be using the batteries in a number of different ways to help us smooth out the energy interactions between the solar farm, the air source heat pump, the gas CHP, and the import of energy.”