While BMW powers Coldplay's concerts, old Nissan Leaf batteries power railway crossings in Fukushima
Jerrica · Nov 13, 2021 01:58 PM
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Japan Nissan Leaf owners will get to see their disposed batteries in action powering a railroad crossing device in Japan. Nissan and the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) are teaming up to come up with a more sustainable way to reuse old Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (EV) batteries to further promote a carbon-neutral future.
Railroad crossings are an essential part of train operations and road traffic safety in Japan. In the event of a power outage or even just a scheduled maintenance work, the crossing devices will switch over to draw power from the emergency power supply units which use lead-acid batteries.
Now Nissan and JR East are teaming up to replace these lead-acid batteries with used Nissan Leaf lithium-ion batteries. Trials started in January 2021.
The old lithium-ion battery retains 60 to 80 percent of its electricity storage capacity at the end of its life cycle in a car. While they might not be good enough to run in cars anymore, the batteries are still in good condition for other uses.
According to Nissan, repurposing vehicle batteries can reduce CO2 emissions and the use of rare resources when building a new battery from scratch. On top of that, this will increase the value of EVs in general and perhaps lead to wider adoption.
Nissan’s partner, 4R Energy Corporation, will be leading the research on whether the used Leaf batteries can replace the railway crossing’s backup lead-acid batteries.
Kaito Tochihara, Assistant Chief Researcher at JR East’s R&D centre
According to Kaito Tochihara, Assistant Chief Researcher at JR East’s R&D centre, repurposed EV lithium-ion batteries are more durable than lead-acid batteries. Lithium-ion batteries last an average of 10 years in contrast to lead-acid batteries’ lifespan of just 3-7 years.
Other than that, lithium-ion batteries only require a third of the charging time. Plus, these batteries also come with a control system attached, just like when it was still in an EV. This will make monitoring the battery and even checking the battery’s status much more convenient.
With the control system in place, maintenance personnel will be able to carry out any preventative maintenance measures before its voltage becomes too low.
The batteries installed at the Atago railroad crossing on the Joban Line that runs through Minamisoma City in Fukushima Prefecture will be facing its biggest trial yet. Japan is entering its Autumn season and that means the lightning storm and typhoon season is upon them.
Researchers are looking forward to seeing how the batteries will fare when lightning strikes near the railway crossing.
To put it in context, EVs were designed to direct electricity flow to the ground through the vehicle’s body and away from the battery if lightning strikes the car. This measure was put in to prevent a sudden abnormally high voltage surge from flowing into the battery.
In the railway crossing, there is no way to redirect sudden electricity surges from the battery as it is hooked up to various cables that send power to barriers, alarms, and control equipment.
Researchers have to come up with various modifications to the battery’s control infrastructure from the development stage. The batteries have also passed through various other third-party testing institutions for operational tests.
So far, the lithium-ion battery has been receiving positive feedback so it remains to be seen if it would hold up when it is hit by lightning.
JR East plans to install two more lithium-ion batteries in another two more railway crossings to further test out the feasibility of transitioning to a more sustainable battery.
As more countries push to embrace the use of EVs, the availability of reusable batteries will also increase. While BMW and MINI are using old disposed BMW i3 batteries to power Coldplay’s concerts, Nissan is focussing on powering railways instead.
It would be interesting to see what other inventive ways these batteries can be reused in the future.
There isn’t a time in memory that doesn’t involve staring at cars. After discovering the excitement of watching Schumacher vs Hakkinen, Formula 1 became a major part of life. The love for cars and F1 ultimately led to a job with CAR Magazine. The untimely death of the magazine meant a hiatus from cars at lifestyle women’s magazine Marie Claire before another opportunity came knocking again.
