Nissan's LEAF will be able to power homes in Japan, officials announced Tuesday. (Creative Commons)

Nissan announced Tuesday a system to power homes in Japan using its LEAF electric vehicle (EV.). The system, known as bi-directional flow, will allow Japanese residents to tap into the stored battery power of their Nissan LEAF to power their homes in times of peak demand or outages.

Rolling blackouts have been commonplace in Japan since earthquakes and resulting tsunamis have forced the government to shut down nuclear power plants for safety inspections. Nissan's aim with the LEAF is to offer a possible remedy to country's outages.

The energy stored in the LEAF's lithium-ion battery can power an average Japanese home for up to two days, environmental technology blog EcoGeek reports. But if the stored energy were used only during hours of peak demand, or when electricity is as its most expensive, Japanese residents would cut their energy bills while retaining enough power in their cars to make routine daily trips.

Using rechargable batteries in EVs as a source of grid power is not a new concept, but the batteries in early electric cars were impractical for such a purpose. As the technology has improved, batteries have become much more efficient, exponentially increasing both their raw storage capacity and their lifetime.

According to a study conducted by Southern California Edison in 2008, the lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles can deliver upwards of 180,000 miles of service, which translates to a useful lifetime of over ten years. Companies such as Nissan now see the practicality of utilizing these batteries as viable storage for the main power grid and so are beginning to develop the technology to make vehicle-to-grid charging possible.

Other national governments, too, are seeing the benefits of vehicle-to-grid power. In June, Denmark became the first country to pay EV owners to supply their stored energy into the grid. If Nissan's bi-directional flow program takes off, Tokyo will likely adopt a similar policy.

While vehicle-to-grid is only just gaining traction, many governments around the world routinely pay their citizens for power generated by green technology. Southern California Edison, for example, offers a rebate program to businesses that generate their own power, significantly reducing costs.

Despite its promising future in Japan, Nissan's system is unlikely to catch on in the United States, at least for the time being. The average American household uses four times more energy than a Japanese household, so the bi-directional flow system is less cost-effective and would require a greater sacrifice of driving range--a sacrifice Americans have demonstrated they aren't willing to make. California residents are much more likely to begin benefitting from Southern California Edison's investments in renewable energy sources and upgrades to the power grid than they are from Nissan's expansion of the bi-directional flow program.

Nissan expects to begin selling the system publicly to Japanese residents by April of 2012. Pricing details were not released at Tuesday's announement.

Reach Staff Writer Sean McGuire here.