GM is sending new and outdated EV batteries to recycler Redwood Supplies, which then repurposes the packs for stationary vitality storage storage, the 2 corporations introduced at present.
Second-life batteries from GM have already made their means by Redwood’s course of and right into a 12 megawatt microgrid on the firm’s Sparks, Nevada, headquarters. Electrical energy from that set up then flows to a close-by 2,000 GPU information heart owned by Crusoe.
The microgrid is a part of Redwood’s new vitality storage division that launched publicly in June and focuses on repurposing EV batteries for grid-scale vitality storage. By way of testing, the corporate discovered that most of the cells which arrived at its services nonetheless had quantity of life left in them.
Somewhat than recycle the embedded supplies, the corporate saved the packs intact, then linked them to create a big vitality storage system that may retailer extra electrical energy, usually generated by photo voltaic and wind, for later use. The batteries for the Crusoe venture are fed by photo voltaic panels.
“I feel this has the potential to develop sooner than the core recycling enterprise,” Redwood co-founder and CEO JB Straubel stated on the time. Redwood already recovers round 70% of all used or discarded batteries within the U.S. The corporate plans to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of vitality storage by 2028.
Redwood isn’t the one firm following that playbook, although its skill to combine quite a lot of packs — from completely different producers and chemistries — might give it an edge over opponents.
Each GM and Redwood have an current settlement, however the brand new collaboration marks an growth.
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One notable element: GM’s willingness to provide Redwood with new batteries, not simply outdated ones, offers it a hedge in opposition to uneven progress in EV gross sales. New gross sales dipped 6.3% within the second quarter of this yr, in keeping with Cox Automotive, although they’re anticipated to surge earlier than tax credit are phased out September 30.
Power storage, then again, has been rising constantly in recent times. New installations within the first quarter of this yr hit a brand new file, up 57% year-over-year.
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