(Credit: Nissan)A bi-directional charger that can help businesses with electric fleets optimize their energy use has been approved by Nissan to use with the automaker’s Leaf model in the United States.
The charger from Fermata Energy can charge the electric vehicle and also send energy back to the building or the grid. The FE-15 bi-directional charger supports all the functionality Nissan requires and is compatible with the Leaf. It is the first bi-directional charger Nissan will use with the vehicle in the US.
Fermata Energy says the charger along with its energy demand management application is ideal for companies with fleet vehicles. The platforms continuously monitor a building’s electrical loads and draw on the Leaf’s energy to provide power to the building during times of the highest energy demands. In states with utility demand response programs, bi-directional charging can send energy to the grid, especially during periods of the most pressure on the grid, such as the summer months, the company says.
Bi-directional charging is the key piece to the growing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) market, especially as users attempt to make the growing demand for electric vehicles and efficient energy work together. The V2G technology market is expected to grow by more than 16% a year and be valued at $12.75 billion by 2031, according to a report from Transparency Market Research.
The US Department of Energy says smaller batteries, with capacities of 15-kilowatt hours to 100-kilowatt hours, can use bi-directional technology to power a single building. They can help companies optimize renewable energy and replace diesel-powered backup generators, the DOE says, while also increasing a facility’s energy resilience.
V2G technology can enhance energy management systems for commercial buildings, while also increasing value to the grid. A study by the Electric Power Research Institute found that V2G could have $1 billion in grid benefits annually in California. During the summer of 2022, a program in Massachusetts used two electric school buses to send more than 7-megawatt hours of energy back to the grid.
The Leaf is also part of a V2G pilot program in Toronto developed by SWTCH Energy to test how an electric vehicle charger can store energy during off-peak hours. Fermata Energy has raised more than $40 million to advance its technologies and the company’s programs have helped buildings in Denver, and Boulder, in Colorado capture energy, and the company participated in a utility demand response program with the Burrillville wastewater treatment facility in Rhode Island.
