Tennessee Technological University
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
U.S. Space & Rocket Center
Rock City
Second Life Battery Project
Tennessee Technological University
In 2019, Seven States Power, along with a group of their strategic partners, won an EV-related grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to add even more chargers to the region’s EV network.
Seven States – and strategic partners Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Nissan and ChargePoint – were joined by Tennessee Technological University, the University of Texas at Austin, Lighting Systems, East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition, the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency and Lyft in applying for the DOE grant, which runs through 2022.
The DOE project seeks to provide an alternative-fuel proof of concept in regions where those alternative fuels are not yet fully adopted. The terms of the grant shared by the Seven States group call for Tennessee Technological University to receive $780,000 from the DOE; that money will be combined with additional matching funds, making the total value of the project $1.56 million. The grant funds will be used to develop an EV testbed in Tennessee’s Upper Cumberland region. This testbed will support the growth of the number of EV chargers available to owners of electric vehicles in the Tennessee Valley. In 2020, Seven States completed the installation of eight Level 2 chargers throughout the Upper Cumberland region and one DC Fast Charger on the campus of TTU.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Along with Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB), a Seven States Power member, we partnered with the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) on a student-led electric vehicle (EV) research project in Spring 2020. In the Fall of 2021, we completed Phase 2 of that project with the installation of a networked EV charger on campus.
The research project began with four groups of students in UTK’s Health Integrated Business & Engineering Program charged with developing a business plan for electric vehicle charging infrastructure on the college campus. Seven States and KUB served as industry experts, providing information and experience to the teams as they conducted surveys, studied maps of the electric grid, designed charging infrastructure, evaluated vendors and developed revenue streams to justify the proposed installation.
The teams, which included engineering and business students working together, designed solutions that demonstrated a strong understanding of the technology and the business case for rapid deployment of it. The project concluded with the installation of a dual port Level 2 ChargePoint EV charge that is accessible to students, faculty and the public. Located off Neyland Drive near the College of Engineering and Neyland Stadium, it is a perfect location for the campus' first networked EV charger. UTK, KUB and Seven States celebrated the installation with a ribbon cutting ceremony on November 1, 2021. KUB and Seven States are excited to work with students on EV charger installations this Fall, and we look forward to future student-led research projects with the University.
U.S. Space & Rocket Center
In October 2020, Huntsville Utilities, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, local officials and Seven States symbolically opened a groundbreaking solar-powered, EV charging station that utilizes battery storage for greater functionality. Project Liftoff serves as an educational exhibit about the United States’ space program’s use of solar power in space exploration.
The combination of solar power and battery storage offers an economic assist to the USSRC by allowing them to offset energy usage by using the 30kW of electricity generated by solar power right in their parking lot.
In addition to helping the not-for-profit USSRC offset their energy costs, the Project Liftoff installation promises to help educate the thousands of visitors who pass through the center during a typical year about how solar power has enabled solar exploration, from the early solar panels that powered the Vanguard 1 satellite launched in 1958 to NASA’s current use of solar arrays to power everything from the Mars Rover to the International Space Station.
The outstanding results of the collaboration involved in bringing Project Liftoff to fruition also illustrates the power of partnership among the Tennessee Valley’s 153 local power companies.
Rock City
In November 2021, Seven States Power Corporation, EPB, and Rock City celebrated the completion of a new solar powered arbor that will reduce energy consumption and enhance educational opportunities at Rock City. The partners began construction of the plant arbor, which is being used as a framework for the solar system installation, near the Rock City guest entrance in August 2021. Power from the solar arbor is connected to the ticket booth, which will enhance the availability of sustainable energy to the facility while also helping the partners educate Rock City customers about solar and promote the use of it. Guests will be able to see sustainability in action when they visit Rock City.
The solar canopy will generate approximately 16,800 kWh of renewable energy annually – enough to power 40 refrigerators or 3,200 cell phones for an entire year. Lightwave Solar served as the contractor for the construction of the solar arbor.
Second Life Battery Project
In June 2022, Seven States announced a partnership with Nissan, Middle Tennessee Electric, the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, and Tennessee State University to launch an innovative second-life battery storage project.
The rapid transition to electric vehicles and the escalating need for energy storage is driving demand for innovative approaches to repurposing used electric vehicle (EV) batteries to enhance the resilience of America’s electric grid. This partnership seeks to build a solution that can be helpful locally and modeled globally.
Used battery packs from Nissan’s all-electric LEAF – the first mass-produced EV in the U.S. – will be used to construct two Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) at Nissan America’s headquarters in Franklin, Tenn. The retrieved packs will undergo testing and be assembled in modular, scalable storage systems. The BESS systems will provide supplemental power supply and peak demand shaving* for Nissan’s facilities and support the Middle Tennessee electric grid.
This project will repurpose Nissan’s used EV batteries, giving them a “second life” as a BESS for the Nissan electrical system. The group will also research how to best reduce energy usage, improve battery life, optimize energy distribution within the system and into the grid, house and scale the packs and system, in addition, make it easy and safe for consumers to connect to the electric grid.
The project leverages a circular process model. Batteries lose capacity to fully charge over time. When EV batteries reach that point, the battery’s performance is no longer ideal for use in the vehicle and the battery is replaced. These used batteries have an opportunity to be repurposed in other long-life applications.
