Just imagine being able to power your home for a week, or more on used auto batteries. You wouldn’t need a noisy generator, and you could watch your favorite movies all night long during a blackout. A UK vehicle manufacturer found a way to achieve this by repurposing second life auto batteries. Although we don’t yet know what this would cost the average user.
Battery Storage With Second Life Auto Batteries
The Jaguar Land Rover battery energy storage system redeploys seven second-life auto batteries from EVs. These include Range Rover and Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid vehicles. Between them, they have capacity for 270 kilowatt-hours of electric energy.
The auto manufacturer estimates this should be sufficient to power a UK home ‘for close to a month’ according to MSN news channel. However, we know from experience that the British warm their homes with natural gas. So, how long would the 270 kilowatt-hours last in North America?
We found a variety of answers to that question on the web. But finally we settled on an article in Forbes, suggesting the average U.S. home uses 893 kilowatt-hours a month. Thus the average North American owner should be able to survive a one-week blackout, which is still quite an achievement.
Why Is Jaguar Land Rover Doing This Now?
There is pressure on big companies to protect their reputations by finding ways to recycle their products. Moreover, MSN confirms that European Union has mandated:
- A growing portion of electric vehicle batteries must be recycled.
- Electric vehicle makers must focus on finding second-uses first.
- Energy storage is the simplest, easiest way to achieve this goal.
“Developing second-life battery projects like this is crucial if we want to make sustainability real,” says company spokesperson Reuben Chorley. He is Jaguar Land Rover’s director for sustainable operations.
More Information
Making Electric Car Batteries Easier to Recycle
Stressed Drone Batteries Find Second Lives
