Office Powered by Nissan Leaf

[DaveofDurham]

Interesting article.  Worth looking at for a moment just to see the photo.

 

http://www.hybridcars.com/office-powered-by-nissan-leaf/?utm_source=hyc12042013&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter

[RachelnLa]

I loved the Leaf. It just did not fit my needs. Happy I found the max!

[hybridbear]

Very interesting. It seems though that these added charge cycles on the battery would only serve to further reduce its lifespan.

[fbov]

While that article does imply long term drain on the cars for actual power use during peak demans, the real value of this sort of thing is in power grid regulation.

 

Simply put, electric generating stations cannot respond to short-term changes in load on the grid. Added load causes a reduction in line frequency, used for many functions, so untility companies need large power reserves available to satisfy new loads and restore line frequency. Think in terms of everyone's clock running slow during hot days with high AC usage. The link discusses the advantages of "fast" power leveling assets vs. generating stations.

 

One source of fast power leveling assets is a plug-in hybrid's battery. In this case, net drain is minimal; lots of short discharges that are made up immediately. Li-ion batteries are good at this sort of application, and if you get paid (perhaps a free charge?), what's the harm?

 

HAve fun,

Frank