In June 2022, Seven States announced a partnership with Nissan, Middle Tennessee Electric, the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, and Tennessee State University to launch an innovative second-life battery storage project.
The rapid transition to electric vehicles and the escalating need for energy storage is driving demand for innovative approaches to repurposing used electric vehicle (EV) batteries to enhance the resilience of America’s electric grid. This partnership seeks to build a solution that can be helpful locally and modeled globally.
Used battery packs from Nissan’s all-electric LEAF – the first mass-produced EV in the U.S. – will be used to construct two Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) at Nissan America’s headquarters in Franklin, Tenn. The retrieved packs will undergo testing and be assembled in modular, scalable storage systems. The BESS systems will provide supplemental power supply and peak demand shaving* for Nissan’s facilities and support the Middle Tennessee electric grid.
This project will repurpose Nissan’s used EV batteries, giving them a “second life” as a BESS for the Nissan electrical system. The group will also research how to best reduce energy usage, improve battery life, optimize energy distribution within the system and into the grid, house and scale the packs and system, in addition, make it easy and safe for consumers to connect to the electric grid.
The project leverages a circular process model. Batteries lose capacity to fully charge over time. When EV batteries reach that point, the battery’s performance is no longer ideal for use in the vehicle and the battery is replaced. These used batteries have an opportunity to be repurposed in other long-life applications.
