The Volkswagen Group is entering a new business segment with the Elli charging and energy brand and will develop, build and operate large-scale stationary storage systems together with partners along the value chain.
In the future, Elli’s industrial energy storage systems will be used to supply customers and for arbitrage transactions on the electricity market. In this way, Elli is driving the transformation into a smart energy company and making a significant contribution to stabilizing and increasing the efficiency of the power grids. First Elli battery storage projects could be set up as early as next year.
The largest projects in the Elli project pipeline currently have a capacity of up to 350 MW and a storage capacity of 700 MWh. Such projects would almost double the total storage capacity installed in Germany, which currently amounts around one GWh. “Germany and Europe need sufficient storage solutions to meet the increasing demand and to compensate for the volatile feed-in of renewable energies. Our investment in stationary battery storage systems is therefore a significant contribution to the sustainable transformation of the energy supply,” says Volkswagen Group Board Member for Technology Thomas Schmall.
The need for storage solutions is enormous: In 2023 alone, around 10,500 GWh were not generated from renewable electricity sources in Germany due to a lack of intermediate storage options. This amount of electricity would have been enough to power more than 3.2 million electric vehicles with electricity from renewable sources for a year. In order to compensate for the volatility of renewable energies, Fraunhofer Institute estimates a demand for battery storage systems of over 100 GWh by 2030.
By entering the business of industrial energy storage, Elli confirms its leading role in the mobility and energy transition. “We see high financial potential in this business area and the opportunity to develop Elli into a holistic energy provider in Europe,” explains Giovanni Palazzo, CEO Elli.
