Redwood Materials is giving old EV batteries a second life as microgrids
1 min read
Summary
Redwood Materials, founded by Tesla’s former chief technologist, has launched Redwood Energy to repurpose used electric vehicle (EV) batteries into stationary storage systems that it says cost “substantially less” than new projects.
The new division will seek to divert functional EV batteries from the recycling stream.
Redwood estimates more than 100,000 EVs will come off the road this year alone, potentially providing it with a significant supply of batteries for its storage systems, which will help plug gaps in grid capacity.
Engineers will determine whether suitable candidates for reuse can be installed into flexible, modular storage systems that operate independently or connect to the grid.
Redwood has already deployed its first microgrid, at its Nevada campus, which is powering a 2,000 GPU modular data centre.