Redwood Supplies is repurposing previous EV batteries into power storage methods that value “considerably much less” than model new storage tasks, the corporate mentioned Thursday.
The electrical automobile battery recycling and manufacturing enterprise, which was based by Tesla’s former chief technologist, has created a brand new division referred to as Redwood Vitality to handle these tasks. The purpose is to divert “depreciated however practical” EV batteries from the recycling stream and repurpose them into “low-cost, large-scale” power storage methods that may assist plug important gaps within the power grid.
Redwood says it receives over 20 GWh of batteries yearly — the equal of 250,000 EVs— which represents about 90 p.c of all lithium-ion batteries and battery supplies recycled in North America. And sometimes instances, the batteries it receives for recycling nonetheless have a variety of usable power capability — as much as 50 p.c. These are batteries which might be now not appropriate to energy an electrical automobile, however nonetheless have sufficient life in them to serve some objective.
So slightly than recycle these nonetheless practical batteries, Redwood is popping them into stationary storage methods. And the corporate says this will likely 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 12 months 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 methods” which might 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 12 months.
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 information heart for AI infrastructure firm Crusoe. Redwood calls it the “largest second-life battery deployment on the earth” with sufficient power 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 gap 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, Specialised, Amazon, Lyft, Rad Energy Bikes, Lime, stationary storage services, and others. The corporate additionally produces anodes and cathodes, important battery elements, at a facility in South Carolina.
