The adoption of the new power systems represents the largest energy storage system in Europe for a a commercial building, according to Business Green magazine. The power to the Amsterdam Arena now uses second-life and new electric vehicle batteries, and it began operation at the the end of June. The new power system delivers sufficient capacity to store up to 2.8MWh of electricity.
The Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam is a stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands and it is the largest stadium in the country. The stadium is the home of the association football club AFC Ajax, and the stadium will be hosting three group stage matches and one match in the quarter-final final of the Euro 2020.
The new power system uses makes use of batteries provided by Nissan, some of these are repurposed from its top selling LEAF electric vehicles. These were used to create a bi-directional storage system which is designed to store power generated by solar panels on the stadium’s roof. The batteries can also support the local grid, to assist with the management of peaks and troughs in electricity demand. In all there are 148 Nissan LEAF batteries with 4,200 solar panels on the roof of the stadium.
The Nissan Leaf is a compact five-door hatchback electric car manufactured by Nissan; as an all-electric car, the Nissan LEAF produces no tailpipe pollution or greenhouse gas emissions when in operation, and thereby contributes to reduced dependence on petroleum.
Speaking about the innovative application of the Nissan batteries to power the stadium, Henk van Raan, director of innovation at the Johan Cruijff Arena said: “The Arena is assured of a considerable amount of power, even during an outage. As a result, the stadium will contribute to a stable Dutch energy grid. The Johan Cruijff Arena is one of the most sustainable stadiums in the world and leads the way in introducing smart innovations like this unique energy storage system.”
