The Nissan xStorage storage system, integrated with a renewable energy source, makes use of recycled batteries and allows you to sell excess energy back to the grid.
Charging the car's batteries while simultaneously powering the home's grid through integration with a photovoltaic system or another renewable energy source is the dream of every electric vehicle owner — or aspiring one — as well as of every environmentally conscious citizen. A dream that can become reality thanks to a storage system capable of accumulating electricity when costs are lower, for example at night, and then using it during peak periods or blackouts, while selling surplus quantities back to the operator. A four-fold virtuous strategy, capable of increasing demand for renewable energy, facilitating the uptake of low-emission vehicles, cutting energy bills and optimising the management of the electricity grid.
The first company to design a solution integrating renewable sources, vehicle charging and home grid power was Tesla. The American company's strategy involved the use of a storage unit developed specifically for the purpose. Now Nissan goes further, proposing a storage system called xStorage that relies on lithium batteries that have reached their "second life" — that is, batteries no longer suitable for vehicle propulsion and converted to other uses. The Japanese manufacturer thus fulfils an additional pivotal function for the advancement of sustainable mobility: it recycles cells that have become unsuitable for automotive use, providing an answer to the disposal problem without environmental or social costs.
xStorage, which will be marketed in Europe during 2016 at a price of €4,000 including installation, has a capacity of 4.2 kilowatt-hours. Nissan expects to sell 100,000 units by 2021; the benefit for each household — according to the Japanese company — would translate into average savings of €800 a year. An initiative that forms part of the manufacturer's broader vision for the city of the future, in which low-emission vehicles will be the cornerstone of sustainability rather than a critical factor affecting quality of life. Electric vehicles will in fact be integrated into buildings as energy hubs, they will charge while parked at the roadside thanks to inductive (wireless) systems, and autonomous driving will make it possible to drastically reduce traffic as well as enabling new forms of car sharing. The "service station" of the future will be the car itself, capable of supplying energy when connected, for example, to a home or a pedal-assist bicycle. The self-sustaining infrastructure is born.
The cornerstone of Nissan's vision is the widespread use of renewable energy. An evolution already under way, which has led to the testing of the futuristic V2G strategy (from the English vehicle-to-grid), in which the Japanese company's electric models — most notably the compact saloon Leaf and the commercial vehicle e-NV200 — interact with special charging points capable of charging and discharging the batteries according to domestic needs, generating a bidirectional flow. The car thus becomes a mobile power unit. An opportunity not currently provided for under Italian legislation — it is no coincidence that the project is being developed in Denmark and England — although changes are on the horizon. According to Nissan Europe president Paul Willcox, "the 18,000 Nissan electric vehicles already on the road in Great Britain can provide a potential of 180 megawatts and, when the entire fleet is fully electric, we will have a virtual power station on wheels capable of meeting the total energy needs of the United Kingdom, Germany and France." "Science fiction? Rather, reality. In the next ten years there will be more radical changes than in the last century." The revolution is at the door.