Nissan North America has declared its plans to erect 30 new electric vehicle charging stations that utilize solar power. The new stations while allowing the public to charge their electric vehicles also will assist the local utility to study the energy storage feature.
Recently, the company has brought out its new electric vehicle, ‘the leaf’ and is now opening up the required infrastructure to charge up the vehicles at its facilities located in Tennessee. The 30 new charging facilities proposed for installation in Smyrna will allow both the public and the visitors to the Nissan facilities to plug in and charge their vehicles. Earlier, the company had installed such a facility at its plant located in Knoxville, Tennessee.
According to Stacie Cain, project coordinator, the company opted for solar power instead of grid connectivity for the public charging stations, to allay the worries of the utility company about the excess withdrawal of the current from the utility grid and to reduce the impact on the grid.
The company has been working in close liaison with the local utility company Tennessee Valley Authority and Oakridge Research Laboratories on the project. The project research while supplying data on the use of batteries as back-up support for the energy storage for the grid also offers life for the discarded vehicle batteries that are left with around 60% working capacity and to reuse them effectively in storage facilities.