Use of Nissan Leaf battery in Solar installation.

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Now that is great luck! Sounds like you will rarely have to pull from the net eh?

And you even kept it out of a landfill or whereever they were going to "throw it away" to..
 
offpist said:
Hello everybody.
I currently drive an Nissan Leaf, and I am also very interested in Solar systems.
So I started thinking an battery from Nissan Leaf would make a good storage for solar power I normally export to the grid.

So, I got a hold of a battery pack from an wrecked Leaf, and started building.
First of all i had to make it about 48V, and to do that i have to put 14 Cells in series.
Each module has two cells, so its only 7 modules in series and 6 in paralell.
Then I can use 42 of the 48 modules from the battery pack.
This may be expanded with more modules later, we will see.

These batteries are all from one battery pack? 18kwh, that must be. WOW!
 
Some new pic`s.

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Do you have any plan for how to maintain the cells that are not in use? If you can continue to find these used packs for sale so cheap, you could package them in a rack as you have already done and sell it to others for a worthwhile profit. It could even make a good side business.
 
The cell that are left over are already sold, with a nice profit.
Actually, the local dealer have one more crashed car coming in next week.
He has my number, so we may make another deal. But i think the price will be higher this time ;)
 
offpist said:
Actually, the local dealer have one more crashed car coming in next week.

Ok - what's with all the crashed Leafs in your area? Folks drive crazy or something? Do they come equipped with targets on the backs?

Wish you were in my area, I'd give serious thought to hiring you at least to consult with building a system like that here...
 
Actually, Nissan Leaf is one of the most sold car in Norway at the moment and its been very popular from when it came in 2011.
We are soon passing 50 000 electric cars, and most of them are Nissan Leaf. Tesla nr 2.
Some of them are bound to crash, like any other car i guess ;)

Here they have removed ALL taxes from electric cars, and gasoline cars have crazy high taxes.
Even the middle-class working guy can afford an Tesla.

The thing is, most Leaf`s still have warranty on the battery so there is no after marked for the batteries.
And the scrap dealers have to pay to get rid of it.

I have been posting this on some Norwegian forums, and I know that a few more are now considering doing something similar. Just hope i don't hear about someone getting hurt.. 360V DC will do more than just give you a tingle..
 
offpist, I know you mentioned you didn't want to do this as a business, but if you keep getting salvaged Nissan packs, you could buy them, and safely take them apart, then offer the modules to the DIY community in your area, that want to duplicate the clever storage system you've built. you could even partner with a local solar company, to do the installation work for others.. just a thought.
 
I now got hold of two more battery packs from two crashed cars.
But at the moment I am not going to expand my current setup as I think 30KWH is enough.
So probably I will sell them, and help others build something similar.
 
Awesome project you undertook! It looks amazing, and a very clean/neat installation.

Apart from the batteries, how much in total did you spend on the rack, electrical components, connectors, whatever else AWG cables, etc etc?

Cheers.

offpist said:
I now got hold of two more battery packs from two crashed cars.
But at the moment I am not going to expand my current setup as I think 30KWH is enough.
So probably I will sell them, and help others build something similar.
 
Rack, wheels, shelfs and fan: 2000 dollar.
BMS, fuse and contactor: about 1100 dollar
50 mm2 cabling: 220 dollar
Inverter, display, about 4400 dollar.

Prices are only estimates from the top of my head.

Most of this can be done a lot cheaper.. especially the rack parts as its easy to find cheap on second hand marked.. Its standard server rack components.

There are also cheaper BMS solutions out there.
I chose this one, as I wanted the CAN interface.
 
Thanks for sharing the costs.

Again, I am very impressed with the "clean" and professional looking project implementation. I LOVE the way the batteries are rack mounted into server racks! ;-) Definitely a touch act to follow.



offpist said:
Rack, wheels, shelfs and fan: 2000 dollar.
BMS, fuse and contactor: about 1100 dollar
50 mm2 cabling: 220 dollar
Inverter, display, about 4400 dollar.

Prices are only estimates from the top of my head.

Most of this can be done a lot cheaper.. especially the rack parts as its easy to find cheap on second hand marked.. Its standard server rack components.

There are also cheaper BMS solutions out there.
I chose this one, as I wanted the CAN interface.
 
offpist said:
Thanks for the feedback.

Now I am just sitting at the office watching the battery pack charge.
This morning it was 10% SOC, and now it is 80%SOC(14:00).. should reach 100%SOC by 16:00.
It works flawless and automatic, no need to human input.

If i can get my hand on one more battery pack I might consider expanding.
Salvage yards are going to be more popular than ever!
:D
P.V. battery backup systems I've seen folks build around our 2nd home in Montana are lead acid - so the thought of no off-gassing fumes / venting requirements would be a real JOY - not even considering the power to weight improvement.
.
 
I am very impressed with your skills offpist. Like you said, you thought of it and you did it! Wow!!! Great work. Enjoyed your enthusiasm and the ability to get it done. Continue with your "hobby" :D
 
offpist said:
Yes, but now I am using almost 1,5 battery pack, total of 70 modules.

As others have said, very impressive.

offpist said:
Each module has two cells, so its only 7 modules in series and 6 in paralell.
Then I can use 42 of the 48 modules from the battery pack.

I'm wondering about the parallel / series connections for the new setup with 70 modules.

And, at least with lead acid, it is undesirable to have parallel connections. Are these cells able to remain balanced with so many parallel cells? And what would be the maximum number that could be connected in parallel? Or would it be better to parallel two 48V packs, with their individual pack cells of 6 parallel?

Has the monitoring showed that cells are remaining balanced over time, or are they needing to be balanced on a regular basis? I ask because there is a debate on another forum about whether LFP cells need a battery monitoring system or not when used in solar PV installations. And of course, the Nissan cells are a different lithium chemistry.
 
Impressive effort. I'd be interested in purchasing the battery case/electronics if any of them are from a 2012 vintage Leaf. I'd really like to assemble a pack with more range for my 2012 model Leaf using higher capacity cells but need a swap out case to try the idea because I don't want to tinker with my current pack
 
Lithium batteries can be put together in parallel in very endless numbers.
Just look the Tesla battery.

If i were to change it in to two strings of 5 in parallel, i would need two BMS`s.
Would not make any sense.
 
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