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General Motors, with its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, and Nissan, with the Leaf battery-electric vehicle, or BEV, will offer 8-year/100,000-mile warranties on the lithium-ion packs in their vehicles. But both makers believe that in the majority of instances they’ll last far longer, whether the vehicles wind up being scrapped or motorists are advised to swap out their old batteries under new federal guidelines now being finalized.
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A recent, unexpected lull in wind generation nearly crashed the Texas energy grid. So the industry is looking for ways to make sure it maintains a stable load at all times.
A network of battery “farms†is one possible way of addressing the challenge.
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Traditional solutions for storing energy have been limited. One approach has been to use excess power, typically generated during off-peak hours, to pump water into a reservoir. When demand is heavy the floodgates open and the water is allowed to flow downhill, powering water turbines.
But the energy industry would like an alternative that could flex with the grid’s minute-by-minute demand.
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Meanwhile, there’s a growing demand for standalone generators for at-home use in the event of a black- or brown-out. Even if it were producing just half of its capacity, a Volt battery or 24 kWh Leaf lithium-ion pack would more than cover the needs of a typical American home, according to government data.
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D'oh! Why didn't I think of that? Use my 36 Zippys as a stand-in for my UPS batteries! 
