This winter has quite literally left many of us in the dark, igniting power outages throughout Illinois over the past few months. If you were struggling to find the batteries to your flashlight, while rifling through kitchen drawers in the dark, you may be relieved to find out that one day your car could power your house.
Toyota's engineers are looking for ways to turn some of their vehicles into power supplies that can be used in emergency situations. They've already discovered that their newly developed fuel-cell vehicle, which is scheduled to hit roads in 2015, contains enough energy to power a small house for up to a week. Now all they have to do is create a mechanism that would connect a car to a house, and they're currently in the process of developing just such a device.
Additionally, the automaker's hybrid batteries, like those in the Toyota Prius and gas-electric Toyota Highlander, could also one day serve as stationary power-storage systems. Toyota has been experimenting with old batteries to find out if they can help power their operations, or even provide back-up power in the event of a blackout or other emergency event.
As Toyota remains a leader among sustainable automakers, it seems fitting that they would be the first to think of this illuminating idea. And perhaps next winter, we'll be able to take advantage of the new technology.
Categories:
News
