Redwood Supplies is giving outdated EV batteries a second life as microgrids

Redwood Supplies is repurposing outdated EV batteries into vitality storage programs that price “considerably much less” than model new storage tasks, the corporate mentioned Thursday.

The electrical car battery recycling and manufacturing enterprise, which was based by Tesla’s former chief technologist, has created a brand new division known as Redwood Vitality to handle these tasks. The intention is to divert “depreciated however useful” EV batteries from the recycling stream and repurpose them into “low-cost, large-scale” vitality storage programs that may assist plug essential gaps within the vitality grid.

Redwood says it receives over 20 GWh of batteries yearly — the equal of 250,000 EVs— which represents about 90 % of all lithium-ion batteries and battery supplies recycled in North America. And infrequently instances, the batteries it receives for recycling nonetheless have lots of usable vitality capability — as much as 50 %. These are batteries which are not appropriate to energy an electrical car, however nonetheless have sufficient life in them to serve some objective.

So relatively than recycle these nonetheless useful batteries, Redwood is popping them into stationary storage programs. And the corporate says this might be a rising alternative as extra EV batteries attain the tip of their lifespan. Redwood estimates that greater than 100,000 EVs will come off the street this yr alone.

After recovering the battery packs, Redwoods engineers carry out a diagnostics test to find out whether or not its an acceptable candidate for restoration or recycling. If its reusable, the pack is put in into “versatile, modular storage programs” which may function independently or connect with the grid. Redwood says it has “over a gigawatt-hour” of reusable batteries in its pipeline, a quantity it expects to develop by 5 GWhs within the coming yr.

Redwood has already deployed its first microgrid powered by upcycled EV batteries. The grid, with 12 MW of energy and 63 MWh of capability, is situated on the firm’s campus in Nevada and is getting used to energy a 2,000-GPU modular knowledge middle for AI infrastructure firm Crusoe. Redwood calls it the “largest second-life battery deployment on this planet” with sufficient vitality to energy “9,000 houses, help 20 Amtrak journeys between New York and Washington, D.C., or cost an EV for a 240,000-mile journey—the space to the moon.”

Redwood Supplies was based in 2017 by JT Straubel. Along with breaking down scrap from Tesla’s battery-making course of with Panasonic, Redwood additionally recycles batteries from Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Specialized, Amazon, Lyft, Rad Energy Bikes, Lime, stationary storage services, and others. The corporate additionally produces anodes and cathodes, essential battery elements, at a facility in South Carolina.