Old EV batteries used in windfarms & solar generators

Nissan and General Motors hope to sell used batteries from electric vehicles to wind farms, according to The Sunday Times. If successful, the scheme could have a major impact on the cost of EVs since batteries form a large part of the vehicle costs.

Once batteries can no longer store more than 70 per cent of their charge - probably after 10 years or 150,000 miles - they are not able to be used to power cars but still have enough storage capacity to be used to store power generated by wind turbines at off-peak times, when it is not required by the national grid. The batteries could also be used for emergency power supplies.

The Sunday Times notes that Nissan has a joint venture with Sumitomo called 4R in Japan to process old batteries. It will sell the batteries that still have good storage potential to wind farms and solar generators and as a stand-by power supply for homes and industrial premises.

Nissan's factory in Sunderland is part-powered by wind

Nissan’s Sunderland plant is the largest UK car producer. In 2004, Nissan installed 6 turbine (4 megawatt) wind farm. It is the first wind farm within the global Nissan group generating 5-7% of the factory’s annual electricity requirement and saving the plant up to £800,000 annually and 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.