The idea of electric cars is that they’re meant to help reduce our carbon footprint in the world. However there are some questions, such as what do companies do with the used batteries after they’ve done? Do they simply throw them away? While different companies probably have different approaches, Nissan has an idea: use them to power street lights.
In a program dubbed “The Reborn Light”, this sees Nissan take recycled Nissan Leaf batteries and use them to power street lights. This will involve the use of a solar panel that will be used to charge the batteries so that at night, the batteries can then be used to provide lights on the street for both pedestrians and traffic.
This isn’t the first time that Nissan has explored the idea of recycling its batteries. Previously the company experimented with something similar to Tesla’s Powerwall storage dubbed “xStorage”, and “The Reborn Light” is another program that the company is exploring. At the moment the program is being tested at Namie, Japan, a city that has since been abandoned following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. They also have plans to do a full-scale expansion in the town later this year.
In a way it’s actually kind of contrasting, where Nissan’s green/solar efforts could be seen as an alternative to using nuclear energy. Exactly whether or not Nissan plans on taking this project further beyond testing is unclear, but it is an interesting concept nonetheless.