Nissan announced recently that it was developing a system to allow owners of its Leaf electric car to use the cars battery to power their homes during emergencies.
The company said its Nissan Leaf to Home system will transform the Leafs charging station into a two-way system that can charge the cars lithium ion batteries and also draw current from the cars batteries and feed it directly into a homes electricity distribution panel.
The Leafs batteries store 24 kilowatt-hours of electricity on a full charge. According to the company, thats enough electricity to power an average Japanese home for about two days. It would be about enough electricity to power an average U.S. home, which consumes roughly twice as much electricity as an average Japanese home, for about a day.
Nissan said it plans to commercialize the system in Japan within a year and expects to make it available to Leaf owners in other countries after systems are adapted to meet local electricity requirements.
Sources:
Nissan Leaf Batteries to Power Homes, CNET, Aug. 4, 2011.
