How's this for a "willing buyer"? Toyota is going to recycle nickel-metal hydride batteries from old hybrids into energy management systems and will then sell those systems to Toyota dealerships in Japan.
Starting in April, the company's Toyota Turbine and Systems Inc. division will sell an Electricity Management system to dealers as part of its effort to get those dealers to cut energy consumption costs. Toyota is also getting its distributors to move towards solar power, LED lighting and other tree-hugging energy policies.
The recycled-battery systems can story up to 10 kilowatt hours (kWh) of power (by comparison, a typical US home uses between 15 and 20 kWh a day). The systems can be used for backup power and can cut costs by, for instance, being deployed as a primary energy source during peak usage and pricing hours of energy consumption.
By the way, those systems weigh about 2,100 pounds each (not all that much lighter than the early Priusmodels, actually), and are small enough that about six of them can fit into a typical parking space. Toyota's press release is avaiable below. You can see how else Toyota is repurposing old Prius parts here(rollercoasters) and here (recycling).
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