Nissan EV Batteries Reused At French Data Center
Nissan EV batteries that were no longer suitable for vehicles have found another life as stationary energy storage at a data center in France. Saint-Romain de Colbosc Eco Park is the site of the Webaxys data center. Nissan collaborated with Eaton, a power management company, to create the energy storage system.
“This installation at Webaxys marks an important historical moment for data centres in their quest to become energy autonomous in the near future. By combining Nissan’s expertise in vehicle design and reliable battery technology with Eaton’s leadership in power quality and electronics, we hope to demonstrate that data centre energy management can be stable, sustainable and cost efficient in the near future,” said Gareth Dunsmore, Nissan Europe’s Director of Electric Vehicles.
Webaxys is a webhosting company with locations in Sotteville-lès-Rouen and LeHavre. The company intends to open more data centers using the Nissan/Eaton energy storage technology.
Though technical details about the Saint-Romain de Colbosc Eco Park data center energy storage system are not in the recent Nissan press release, some clues might be gleaned from a 2015 announcement that Nissan and Eaton were beginning to work together.
This source says the Eaton technology Nissan was considering was a 93PM UPS, in combination with not more than 4 reused Nissan Leaf batteries. The system was said to have about 20 kWh available for each battery, so a 4-battery system would obviously have 80 kWh. It also says the cost of the Eaton technology was expected to be about €10,000, and for the batteries, it would be €400 to €500 per kWh.
The system could be used for peak shaving and renewables integration. Another potential use mentioned was in areas of the developing world where grid-connected electricity is currently not available.
