New lease of life for Leaf batteries

• End-of-life batteries store solar energy
• Leaf battery could power a house for three days
• Gives re-sale value to batteries

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Used Nissan Leaf batteries are being trialed as storage units for solar-generated electricity.

Solar panels at Nissan’s global HQ charge the batteries, and the power is then used to fuel electric vehicles.

The project also allows excess power from renewable sources such as solar and wind generation to be stored and then released at peak times.

A fully charged Leaf battery holds enough energy to power a three-bedroom house for around three days (8kW/day).

Creating a useful ‘second-life’ for the battery is expected to give them – and therefore the Leaf – a significant increase in resale value.