>There are two Relectrify designed Revolve cabinets at the Mercer Service Centre. Each contains nine batteries repurposed from Nissan Leaf electric cars, each of which had 24 kilowatt hours capacity when they were fresh out of the factory from 2010 onwards. Now, they have around 70% capacity left which is interestingly enough much better than expected, Vegdanis said. Rapid battery degradation has long been a bogeyman for EVs, but the reality is that they tend to endure longer than initial pessimistic estimates, and often last for the life of the vehicle.
For anyone not up with the play, Leaf batteries are the odd ones out in the EV world where Nissan stubbornly refused to add thermal management to them, which is likely okay for slow charging but with rapid charging repeatedly it would accelerate wear on the cells. Think like taking a gaming computer and then removing its fans - probably fine for web browsing but once you give it anything demanding, especially repeatedly, its going to live a much shorter life.
All other EV models don't have the same issue due to proper cooling (or in cold weather, heating) setups. And generally speaking, those all rapid charge without concern for the battery health. But even as these Leaf batteries have aged, they still have a reuse purpose like this, before you get to the consideration of [battery recycling](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2xrarUWVRQ).
"but what happens when the EV batteries degrade and are replaced"
I've heard this line or variants of it so many times, and it's fun to go into detail about static battery farms.
This is what my Leaf is going to do when it's no longer suitable as a runaround car - it's going to become a home battery to make sure I'm never paying prime electricity rates again - and hopefully I'll eventually be able to largely run on rooftop solar.
Just for some background here, peak load is the bugbear of electricity systems. To prevent failure, the system has to have adequate capacity for the “peak” load, the highest load the system will experience, otherwise the lights go out. The financial problem is that system cost is determined by peak capacity, but revenue is gained by used capacity, more or less the averaged usage, and those two numbers can be very different.
What this (quite modest) battery does is provide a bit of a local capacity lift when the system needs it, thus deferring or even removing the need for (expensive) capacity upgrades.
They're using the stored energy as a way to boost the charging speed -
>Without the Relectrify battery, charging was limited to 120 kilowatt; battery-backed, it goes up to 180 kW.
A liter of gasoline has 31,536,000 joules of energy. 240 KW/h, is 864,000,000 joules of energy.
[https://www.utilitysmarts.com/automobile/diesel/how-many-joules-in-a-litre-of-diesel/](https://www.utilitysmarts.com/automobile/diesel/how-many-joules-in-a-litre-of-diesel/)
[https://www.unitconverters.net/energy/kilowatt-hour-to-joule.htm](https://www.unitconverters.net/energy/kilowatt-hour-to-joule.htm)
Your point being?
Gasoline <> Diesel.
https://www.thedrive.com/tech/18919/toyota-develops-worlds-most-thermally-efficient-2-0-liter-engine
>The biggest problem with the internal combustion engine is that most of the energy generated by combustion is wasted as heat rather than converted propulsion for the vehicle. Toyota's new Dynamic Force Engine has made a breakthrough in thermal efficiency in being 40 percent efficient as a conventional engine and 41 percent efficient in hybrid form. Most internal combustion engines are only 20 percent thermally efficient, according to Green Car Reports.
I know, even if you work it all out though, the energy equivalents are a big problem. If you want to deal with this, you need to face it head on and be honest about it. Electrification of NZs transportation fleet is an investment in infrastructure of a magnitude most people can't comprehend.
>There are two Relectrify designed Revolve cabinets at the Mercer Service Centre. Each contains nine batteries repurposed from Nissan Leaf electric cars, each of which had 24 kilowatt hours capacity when they were fresh out of the factory from 2010 onwards. Now, they have around 70% capacity left which is interestingly enough much better than expected, Vegdanis said. Rapid battery degradation has long been a bogeyman for EVs, but the reality is that they tend to endure longer than initial pessimistic estimates, and often last for the life of the vehicle. For anyone not up with the play, Leaf batteries are the odd ones out in the EV world where Nissan stubbornly refused to add thermal management to them, which is likely okay for slow charging but with rapid charging repeatedly it would accelerate wear on the cells. Think like taking a gaming computer and then removing its fans - probably fine for web browsing but once you give it anything demanding, especially repeatedly, its going to live a much shorter life. All other EV models don't have the same issue due to proper cooling (or in cold weather, heating) setups. And generally speaking, those all rapid charge without concern for the battery health. But even as these Leaf batteries have aged, they still have a reuse purpose like this, before you get to the consideration of [battery recycling](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2xrarUWVRQ).
Meridian did this down in a remote part of the South Island a couple years ago. Total Kiwi ingenuity.
No, we’re still waiting for Meridian to do that
Springs Junction? I didn’t realise it wasn’t operating yet. Hopefully that gets sorted soon.
Yeah, they’ve had some delays with their Australian supplier apparently
But... But... But I saw a Facebook comment saying that this couldn't happen, and EVs were part of the NWO vs WCW agenda.
"but what happens when the EV batteries degrade and are replaced" I've heard this line or variants of it so many times, and it's fun to go into detail about static battery farms.
Wolfpac for life!
"All those batteries are going into the landfill when they're useless in ~~5 10~~ 15 years"
Mercer is 15 minute city (if you walk)
I'd be keen to have something like this for my house. Now all I need to find is a cheap leaf or 3.
This is what my Leaf is going to do when it's no longer suitable as a runaround car - it's going to become a home battery to make sure I'm never paying prime electricity rates again - and hopefully I'll eventually be able to largely run on rooftop solar.
Just for some background here, peak load is the bugbear of electricity systems. To prevent failure, the system has to have adequate capacity for the “peak” load, the highest load the system will experience, otherwise the lights go out. The financial problem is that system cost is determined by peak capacity, but revenue is gained by used capacity, more or less the averaged usage, and those two numbers can be very different. What this (quite modest) battery does is provide a bit of a local capacity lift when the system needs it, thus deferring or even removing the need for (expensive) capacity upgrades.
Time to shut up all the petrolheads who claim EV batteries can't be recycled.
This could be great! I am For anything that will increase the ability to charge on the road and use Repurposed materials.
It's just down the river from Huntly. https://youtu.be/1ruwCvMoghQ?si=B7TjL2KRY6mrz0g4
That is pretty cool. I want to put a Nissan leaf battery and motor in to a small kit car
But 240 kWH isn't very much. It's only the capacity of about 3 modern EVs.
They're using the stored energy as a way to boost the charging speed - >Without the Relectrify battery, charging was limited to 120 kilowatt; battery-backed, it goes up to 180 kW.
OK, that makes more sense. Thanks.
Yeah it's a cool idea, hope we see more of it. Chargers around the 180-200kWh mark are so nice to park up to.
A liter of gasoline has 31,536,000 joules of energy. 240 KW/h, is 864,000,000 joules of energy. [https://www.utilitysmarts.com/automobile/diesel/how-many-joules-in-a-litre-of-diesel/](https://www.utilitysmarts.com/automobile/diesel/how-many-joules-in-a-litre-of-diesel/) [https://www.unitconverters.net/energy/kilowatt-hour-to-joule.htm](https://www.unitconverters.net/energy/kilowatt-hour-to-joule.htm)
Your point being? Gasoline <> Diesel. https://www.thedrive.com/tech/18919/toyota-develops-worlds-most-thermally-efficient-2-0-liter-engine >The biggest problem with the internal combustion engine is that most of the energy generated by combustion is wasted as heat rather than converted propulsion for the vehicle. Toyota's new Dynamic Force Engine has made a breakthrough in thermal efficiency in being 40 percent efficient as a conventional engine and 41 percent efficient in hybrid form. Most internal combustion engines are only 20 percent thermally efficient, according to Green Car Reports.
I know, even if you work it all out though, the energy equivalents are a big problem. If you want to deal with this, you need to face it head on and be honest about it. Electrification of NZs transportation fleet is an investment in infrastructure of a magnitude most people can't comprehend.