Europe’s largest commercial energy storage system using EV batteries

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Circle Economy and ICLEI have partnered up to initiate the go to knowledge hub of case studies about the circular economy in cities. The Cities Collection is a repository of case studies that demonstrate the role of cities in the circular transition, and includes policies, business cases and research articles. Cases in the Collection flow into an ecosystem of digital products which support users in transitioning cities to circularity, for example [Ganbatte](https://ganbatte.world/cities/) and <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/" target="_blank">ICLEI Circulars</a>, both part of the <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/circle-lab-for-cities/" target = _blank">Circle Lab for Cities Programme.</a>




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Circular Cities

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Business case

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Producing electrical equipment and machinery for industrial use

Capital Equipment

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Societal Services

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Providing electricity and gas services, including traditional and renewable energy generation, natural and manufactured gas and operating gas networks

Energy Utilities and Independent Power Producers

Producing electronics products for businesses and consumers, including cellular phones, personal computers, printers, servers, electronic computer components and peripherals, TVs, audio equipment, as well as household appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, etc.

Electronics and Appliances

Producing electric cables and wires, power-generating equipment, including solar modules, motors, power turbines, as well as electronic equipment and instruments, including computer chips, communication equipment, analytical instruments, lasers, display screens, point-of-sales machines, security system equipment, and healthcare equipment

Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Producing building materials and finished and semi-finished building products for construction

Construction Materials and Products

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Converting fossil fuel based operations to electric

Electrification

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

Eliminate waste by maximizing the recovery of resources at the end of the use phase so that they can be reintroduced into production processes


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Recover

Process waste into valuable industrial inputs or consumer products; distribute processed waste to users.

Process waste and ensure its re-entry into industry at its highest value

Cities consume about 75% of global energy and emit between 50% and 60% of global greenhouse gases (UN-Habitat). To reduce the negative impact of their energy consumption, cities need to shift away from fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy sources. Such a shift will help cities work towards their climate change mitigation and adaptation action plans. Renewable energy technologies such as wind, water, solar, and geothermal can also help improve access to energy in vulnerable and marginalised neighbourhoods through, for example, decentralised, off-grid solutions.

Renewable energy technologies can harvest the energy in nature’s processes, such as wind, and solar radiation and geothermal heat, that can be replenished within a human lifespan. In contrast, fossil fuels are materials that are not replenished within a human lifespan and are combusted for energy, losing the fuel material and resulting in emissions.

Local governments can develop sustainable energy plans, considering different energy resources and requirements, to develop a robust strategy for the development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure throughout the city. They can also institute specific legislation and tax systems to regulate energy production and consumption, incentivise research and development of cleaner, more efficient technologies. Via Power Purchase Agreements cities can buy renewable energy from green energy providers and fix the price in order to provide security to financial institutions to finance renewable energy infrastructure. Furthermore, increasing awareness and facilitating capacity-building on planning urban sustainable energy projects can help the uptake of clean energy across the city by different stakeholders—from citizens to businesses and institutions. Facilitating collaboration, then, will be crucial, since private companies operate most of the world’s energy systems.


⚡ Energy Systems

The built environment, including housing, commercial buildings, and the necessary infrastructure for mobility, is essential for our livelihoods, but:
- the extraction of minerals used to produce construction materials is responsible for a quarter of global land use change,
- approximately 40% of global GHG emissions can be attributed to buildings’ construction, use and demolition, and
- construction and demolition processes drive nearly one-third of all material consumption. 

Making the built environment more circular must prioritise a heavy reduction in material use—while also closing the loop on materials and bringing secondary and renewable material choices to the fore. Our four key solutions for the built environment are:
- Make the most of what already exists: Make the most of existing materials by reusing, repurposing, upgrading and renovating following circular approaches. Where new builds are needed, use secondary materials and be as efficient as possible with urban planning solutions that follow circular design principles so that buildings can be reused, repurposed, and easily disassembled in the future.
- Be as energy efficient as possible: From the design phase, utilise circular strategies to create material- and energy efficient buildings. Couple these designs with a rollout of clean energy solutions, and prioritise energy-efficient appliances and retrofitting. 
- Utilise secondary materials: Maximise the high-value reuse of buildings and components where possible. Ideally, enable the utilisation of construction and demolition outputs and ensure that as much of it as possible is recycled to avoid the need for virgin materials, such as sand and gravel.
- Prioritise circular materials and approaches: Transition to using renewable wood, timber or cross-laminated timber instead of steel and concrete, or move to other locally available materials. Utilise mainstream modular construction and prioritise lightweight frames and structures to reduce cement and steel use, as well as green roofs where possible.



🏢 Built Environment

Businesses

Governments

The most common and visible problems associated with vehicle use and transportation in cities are road accidents, air pollution, or traffic congestion. However, vehicles also present a problem at the end of their life. They continue to take up space in landfill (although sometimes in a compacted form), and even if fossil fuel vehicles are phased out, the shift to electric vehicles in the short term could lead to more internal combustion engine vehicles being scrapped, and to a mountain of battery waste in the longer term.

High-value reuse, and recycling of vehicles and their components, is key to a sustainable future of mobility. When reuse is not an option, advanced recycling technologies can extract valuable raw materials, such as lithium and cobalt, before batteries are disposed of. This would not only reduce the burden on incinerators and landfills, but could provide a new, local and circular source of critical materials for the automotive industry. 

Although only few initiatives exist at the municipal level to support high-value reuse and recycling of vehicle components, many initiatives are being supported at national level and businesses are taking the lead in implementing pilot projects across Europe. In the future, local governments could support the recycling of materials by implementing environmental standards for pollution reduction, dismantling, crushing and shredding of vehicles, as well as financial incentives (such as tax rebates and subsidies.) for remanufacturing of cars and part recovery. Alternatively, cities could ban the landfilling of scrap metals and batteries without any previous treatment. Collaboration and engagement with local businesses can help local governments to accelerate research and disseminate knowledge about circular economy approaches to end-of-life vehicle management. 


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🚌  Recycling of vehicle components

Impacts

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Industries

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The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

 A massive energy storage system that includes new and used electric vehicle (EV) batteries has just been switched on at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena, the home of Dutch football club Ajax.

 It is capable of storing 3 megawatts of power – enough to charge 500,000 iPhones or supply 7,000 households in Amsterdam for one hour – and its makers say it’s Europe’s largest commercial energy storage system using EV batteries.

 The system combines power conversion units and the equivalent of 148 new and used Nissan LEAF batteries, which store energy captured by 4,200 solar panels on the roof of the stadium and also from the grid.
         Its main purpose is to deliver back-up power to the stadium in case of outages or during heavy use. But as well as providing a reliable source of sustainable energy, it will also relieve pressure on the Dutch electricity grid during concerts and other big energy-consuming events. 

 And during periods of low demand, the stadium can contribute power to the grid.
      Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena.      “The arena is assured of a considerable amount of power, even during an outage,” Henk van Raan, the Johan Cruijff Arena’s director of innovation, said in a statement. “As a result, the stadium will contribute to a stable Dutch energy grid.”

 Second life for batteries

 Carmakers are grappling with the problem of what to do with EV batteries when they pass their peak performance. 

 Lithium-ion batteries can continue to store electricity for years after they’re taken off the roads, and several carmakers including Nissan are working on projects to repurpose EV cells for home energy storage.

 Nissan says that the new system at the stadium demonstrates that second-life batteries can play a role in “making the whole energy system more efficient and sustainable”.
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Amsterdam

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Municipality of Amsterdam

Nissan

In Amsterdam. The stadium of of Dutch football club Ajax.

Johan Cruijff Arena

<p>A massive energy storage system that includes new and used electric vehicle (EV) batteries was built at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena, the home of the Dutch football club Ajax.</p>