COUNTRY FOCUS: NETHERLANDS
“
THE PROJECT ON
BATTERY STORAGE
IN THE JOHAN
CRUYFF ARENA
COULD VERY
WELL SERVE AS
AN EXAMPLE TO
THE DATA CENTRE
INDUSTRY.
www.intelligentcio.com
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.
storage system linked to solar panels. The
Amsterdam Arena has now installed 61
racks with 590 battery packs. Good for 3
MW and 2.8 MWh.
Generating and using
After a number of years, the capacity of the
batteries of these cars drops from 100% to
80%. This decline means that the batteries
are no longer suitable for use in an electric
car and therefore need to be replaced.
What to do with so many ‘useless’
car batteries?
It turns out, however, that these batteries
are still perfectly suitable for storing
electrical energy in, for example, an energy
What exactly does the arena use the stored
energy for? This is first of all to compensate
for the mismatch between the moment of
generation and the time of use. The 4200
solar panels on the roof of the stadium
generate electrical energy during the day,
while many sports matches and concerts, for
example, require energy in the evening hours.
These are serious amounts of energy. If
the arena is running at full speed in the
INTELLIGENTCIO
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