General Motors (GM) is using Chevy Volt batteries to power a data center. MLive reports that expired lithium-ion batteries retrieved from Chevrolet Volt’s help power the General Motors Enterprise Data Center at the Milford Proving Grounds in Milford, MI.
GM recently announced that five batteries from first-generation Volts are working in parallel with a 74-kilowatt solar array and two 2-kilowatt wind turbines to green up the data center. The batteries have the capacity to provide backup power for four hours in the event of an outage, GM said. According to the article, the set-up has given the Enterprise Data Center a net-zero energy use on an annual basis, and extra power will be sent back to the grid used by the Milford Proving Ground.
First-gen Chevy Volts still have a lot of juice
As it readies to sell its all-new, second-generation Volt, GM said first-gen cars still have a lot of leftover juice in their battery packs for stationary use. Pablo Valencia, GM’s senior manager of battery life cycle management, said in a presser that the batteries still have value after they come out of the car.
Even after the battery has reached the end of its useful life in a Chevrolet Volt, up to 80 percent of its storage capacity remains … This secondary use application extends its life, while delivering waste reduction and economic benefits on an industrial scale.
The first-generation plug-in hybrid Volt went on sale in 2010 for the 2011 model year. It uses battery power to get an electric range of about 35-38 miles, before switching to gasoline.
The 2016 Volt, unveiled last January in Detroit, will have about a 31% greater electric range than its predecessor. The second-gen Volt has about a 50-mile, all-electric range, and a total driving range of about 400 miles when combined with a gasoline engine.
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According to the Detroit News, GM is working with unidentified partners to validate and test systems for other commercial and non-commercial uses.
Elon Musk‘s Tesla (TSLA) is also leveraging its car-based battery systems to develop a line of storage batteries designed for homes and SMB’s called Powerwall. Powerwall is designed to store electricity for home use, to be used during peak consumption times when utilities charge the most. The device comes in several colors including white, charcoal, red, and blue. There are two options — a 7-kilowatt-hour package using nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries and a 10 kilowatt-hour unit with a nickel-cobalt-aluminum battery.
Related articles
- General Motors finds a new use for used Chevy Volt batteries (inhabitat.com)
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
