06 Apr Altris Selected to Help Build Sweden’s First Smart E-Bus Depot
April 2021:
Altris has been selected to participate in an extremely ambitious project, aimed at electrifying passenger transport in Sweden. The collaborative project will use Altris’ groundbreaking cathode material Fennac® to create sodium-ion batteries that can not only charge vehicles, but also balance local grid needs. This depot is the first of its kind and marks the first real-world demonstration of Altris’ innovation.
Electrified transport plays an important role if Sweden is to be able to reach established environmental and climate goals. As the move to electrified transportation accelerates though, the electricity grid is under strain. In order to tackle this challenge, a unique constellation of actors have joined forces for a project under the umbrella of Sweden’s Smart City Strategy. The ambition is to create a solution for a balanced electricity network which can handle an increasing amount of electric public transport buses.
In Svealandstrafiken’s bus depot in Västerås, the project will create the first depot in the country that will use an algorithm to optimise the charging of electric public transport buses from sodium-ion batteries, whilst also balancing local grid needs.
The project brings together 10 partners from different fields, including giants of the industry such as ABB and Scania. The project has an overall budget of just over 19 million SEK (1.9 million Euros). Approximately 50% of this funding comes from Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency, who help to build Sweden’s innovation capacity and contribute to sustainable growth. This particular project is part of the wider strategy to move towards smarter cities and is seen as an innovative circular solution for energy storage, benefiting both public transportation and the grid.
The project is run by Tvinn and BioDriv Öst and other collaborators on this project include:
ABB
Altris AB
Scania
Solkompaniet
Svealandstrafiken
Transdev
Region Uppsala
Uppsala University