Nissan re-uses electric car batteries to illuminate the roads

Nissan is using an old Leaf battery to provide power to street lights to help make traveling of vehicles and pedestrians safer.

Nissan calls this light 'The Light Reborn' , which uses a solar panel to charge the battery and can turn on the LEDs at night without requiring external power.

Nissan is testing the product in Namie, Japan - an abandoned city after the Fukushima nuclear accident - and plans to install a full range of street lights later this year.

Nissan has tested the idea of using Liaf batteries for a long time. However, the idea of using a battery in a street lamp is new and seems to be just a new beginning for Nissan to recycle old batteries to get into the grid.

Renault, Mercedes and other automakers also plan to use batteries from old and damaged EVs in a variety of ways. One of those ways is to use as a storage battery for the home use of solar or wind power. Or recycle batteries for smaller devices like smartphones.

Meanwhile, Nissan has unveiled a surprisingly ' parked-in ' plan that turns children's activities into energy. The energy of the day helps keep the park bright and safe at night.

Just like the idea of 'Smart Island' , Nissan's Light Reborn project is a small-scale test and is primarily used for marketing the 'green' certificates of the manufacturer. Namie, Japan, is a particularly sensitive place to experiment, as the nearby Fukushima nuclear power plant has lost power in an earthquake and tsunami, causing radioactive leakage.

So far, only Tesla has really pushed into the consumer market with its solar panels. But by the year 2020, big companies like VW will push the idea of recycling car batteries to the grid and turn it into a more viable solution.