GM claims the battery packs could have up to 70% of their operational life remaining even after they’ve finished their life powering the car, capacity which could be used to store energy from sources including renewable wind and solar power.

This could then be fed back to the grid during peak times, saving money on energy generation, reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation and providing backup that could avoid brownouts. GM’s research has shown that 33 of its battery packs could power up to 50 homes for around four hours.

‘Our tests so far have shown the viability of the GM-ABB solution in the laboratory and they have provided valuable experience to overcome the technical challenges,’ said Pablo Rosenfeld, ABB’s program manager for Distributed Energy Storage Medium Voltage Power Products.

‘We are making plans now for the next major step – testing a larger prototype on an actual electric distribution system.’