BMW Malaysia and UM install solar-powered smartphone charging station using second-life BMW EV batteries

BMW Group Malaysia and Universiti Malaya (UM) has installed a solar-powered smartphone charging station running on second-life BMW EV batteries at the university’s Central bus stop. The initiative, which serves a location with more than 3,000 daily users, brings over two years of laboratory research into direct, everyday use by the campus community.

Engineered by associate professor Tan Chia Kwang and his team of researchers and PhD students at the UM power energy dedicated advanced centre (UMPEDAC), the project represents the first real-world application of the RE:GENERATE x Universiti Malaya research initiative following the start of the tie-up earlier this year.

The charging station is one of two concurrent and distinct applications to emerge from the initiative. In the first, lower-capacity battery packs are used for lighter applications, such as the mobile device charging station deployed at the UM bus stop.

Meanwhile, higher-capacity battery packs from the same programme are being allocated to a more demanding application, which is providing rural, off-grid electricity access to a Semai Orang Asli community in Pos Sinderut, Kuala Lipis, Pahang.

Designed to power essential household appliances including lighting, fans, and refrigeration in off-grid villages, these energy storage units are expected to be deployed in the near future. Here, solar panels charge the batteries during the day, and the stored energy is then discharged to power household appliances after sunset, when energy demand is at its highest

Looking further ahead, early-stage plans are being considered to explore how research can be scaled beyond rural electrification, including possible applications for an autonomous zero energy building in the UMSDC building within UM itself.