Opening of E-Bike Charging Station
Sonthofen im Allgäu, May 3, 2015
The city of Sonthofen has a new attraction for bike tourists: Mayor Christian Wilhelm together with Dr. Hubert Lechner, head of local energy supplier AKW, opened the new E-Bike charging station at the Biberhof near Sonthofen in the Allgäu region.
The utilization of bicycles with engine support has increased for years: the private usage of so called E-Bikes is growing and there is a rising tendency for E-Bike tourism in Germany. At the same time, there are a number of premises in the Alps with no connection to the electricity grid. With PV-StorePlus E-Bike the AlpStore team in the Allgäu, B.A.U.M. and eza!, wanted to meet the needs of these two groups – premise owners and e-bike tourists: It is basically a battery storage that supplies electricity to the premise and is at the same time able to charge or swap batteries of E-Bike travellers.
At pilot locations in an alpine hut near Oberstdorf and on an old farm, the Biberhof near Sonthofen, PV-StorePlus E-Bike was installed as shown in the picture below. The goal was to build a self-sufficient energy system, which is able to store electricity generated by solar modules. The electricity storage was built from second use batteries, i.e. batteries that due to reduction in the capacity cannot serve as traction batteries for E-Bikes anymore. While in the hut near Oberstdorf the installation of a real 2nd life storage was possible, the Biberhof was equipped with standard lead batteries. The reason is that the old farm is not occupied permanently anymore and therefore a swapping station for E-Bike batteries could not be supervised all the time.
At both locations AlpStore was able to prove that:
- self-supply can be guaranteed for some days by PV modules in combination with batteries,
- E-Bikers accept the new opportunity to lower their "range anxiety”,
- it is worthwhile working on extended versions of the concept 2nd life batteries (e. g. like in the project ELSA that has just started and builds on ideas of AlpStore’s PV-StorePlus).
The PV-StorePlus E-Bike charging station at the Biberhof
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Kick-off for the PV-StorePlus E-Bike station at the Biberhof (f.l.t.r.): Ludwig Karg (CEO of B.A.U.M.), Andreas Repper (Climate Manager of Sonthofen), Martin Sambale (CEO of eza!), Dr. Hubert Lechner (CEO of AKW), Christian Wilhelm (Mayor of Sonthofen) | Heads of the AlpStore team in the Allgäu: Martin Sambale (CEO of eza!) and Ludwig Karg (CEO of B.A.U.M.). |
AlpStore FINAL CONFERENCE and Study Trip, February 26-27, 2015
A great success for the AlpStore final event in the Aosta Valley
