GM said when an EV battery has reached the end of its car life only 30% or less of its real life has been used. This can be applied to other applications such as powering a structure before the battery is finally recycled.
General Motors and ABB today showed that by repackaging five used Chevrolet Volt batteries into a modular unit, it is in theory capable of providing two hours of electricity for three to five U.S. homes. The recycling is potentially significant since GM claims it will have up to 500,000 vehicles on the road with some form of electrification by 2017 with a focus on plug-in technology, the company’s top product development executive said Wednesday.
The so-called uninterruptable power supply prototype unit provided 25 kW of power and 50 kWh of energy to power all the support lighting and audiovisual equipment in an “off-grid” structure used for the publicity stunt and press conference.
During the demonstration, the storage unit was run in a “remote power back-up” mode where 100% of the power for the facility came from Volt batteries through ABB’s Energy Storage Inverter system. It’s possible a similar application could one day be used to power a group of homes or small commercial buildings during a power outage, according to GM. Other potential applications include storage of power during inexpensive periods for use during expensive peak demand, or to close gaps in solar, wind or other renewable power generation.
These, along with frequency regulation on electric distribution systems, could someday be used by utilities to reduce cost to customers (don’t hold your breath waiting) and improve the quality of power delivery. These applications are referred to as community energy storage to distinguish them from substation-size energy storage projects.
GM said when an EV battery has reached the end of its car life only 30% or less of its real life has been used. This can be applied to other applications such as powering a structure before the battery is finally recycled.
“This is the world’s first use of car batteries as possible back-up power for homes and other commercial uses,” said Allen Burchett of ABB. “We will be installing it on the grid soon to complete the technical evaluation, and this will tell us all what smart grid applications are possible.”
