- Nissan Leaf batteries are getting a second life
- Nissan expects to make use of the battery packs from about 50-60 Leafs
- The venture is projected to cut back yearly carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 3.7 tons
Used Nissan Leaf batteries will assist energy the automaker’s U.S. headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee.
The automaker introduced Thursday that it’s including two battery methods at its headquarters, situated simply exterior Nashville, which might be charged throughout off-peak instances and can provide energy during times of peak electrical energy demand, serving to to stability the grid by holding electrical energy demand from the workplace constructing extra constant whereas decreasing emissions.
Peak shaving with Nissan Leaf second life batteries
The set up consists of two assemblies utilizing battery elements from an estimated 50-60 Leaf electrical automobiles. One accommodates a number of 40-kwh Leaf battery packs including as much as a complete capability of 500 kwh, whereas the opposite makes use of particular person modules.
Nissan expects annual carbon dioxide emissions reductions of as much as 3.7 tons per 12 months from the venture. Technicians will research the battery installations for not less than one 12 months, with a specific deal with how used batteries work collectively regardless of completely different states of well being. The automaker can even work with Center Tennessee Electrical to review potential demand response makes use of, just like initiatives already being undertaken by Normal Motors and Ford, to cut back electrical energy demand from fossil-fuel energy vegetation.
Nissan U.S. headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee
This is not the primary second-life battery venture Nissan has undertaken. In 2015 the automaker unveiled a plan to offer used Leaf battery packs for stationary vitality storage models within the U.S., and it is experimented with the thought in Europe and Japan as nicely. Different automakers have achieved the identical. Porsche, for instance, is utilizing Taycan batteries to assist energy certainly one of its factories.
The deal with EV batteries’ second life assumes that many batteries might be left over as soon as the automobiles they’re put in in attain the tip of their usable lives. However it could take a while for the EV fleet to achieve a big sufficient dimension to produce batteries for something aside from modest initiatives like this Nissan effort. And with fluctuating uncooked supplies costs and the geopolitical and environmental points surrounding their sourcing, there’s some debate about whether or not reuse or recycling is the higher possibility.