Gm Teams Up With Redwood Materials To Power Data Centers With Ev Batteries

GM is sending caller and aged EV batteries to recycler Redwood Materials, which past repurposes nan packs for stationary power retention storage, nan 2 companies announced today.

Second-life batteries from GM person already made their measurement done Redwood’s process and into a 12 megawatt microgrid astatine nan company’s Sparks, Nevada, headquarters. Electricity from that installation past flows to a adjacent 2,000 GPU information halfway owned by Crusoe.

The microgrid is portion of Redwood’s new power retention division that launched publically successful June and focuses connected repurposing EV batteries for grid-scale power storage. Through testing, nan institution recovered that galore of nan cells which arrived astatine its accommodation still had a bully magnitude of life near successful them. 

Rather than recycle nan embedded materials, nan institution kept nan packs intact, past connected them to create a ample power retention strategy that tin shop excess electricity, often generated by star and wind, for later use. The batteries for nan Crusoe task are fed by star panels.

“I deliberation this has nan imaginable to turn faster than nan halfway recycling business,” Redwood co-founder and CEO JB Straubel said astatine nan time. Redwood already recovers astir 70% of each utilized aliases discarded batteries successful nan U.S. The institution plans to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of power retention by 2028.

Redwood isn’t nan only institution pursuing that playbook, though its expertise to merge a assortment of packs — from different manufacturers and chemistries — could springiness it an separator complete competitors.

Both GM and Redwood person an existing agreement, but nan caller collaboration marks an description .

One notable detail: GM’s willingness to proviso Redwood pinch caller batteries, not conscionable aged ones, gives it a hedge against uneven maturation successful EV sales. New income dipped 6.3% successful nan 2nd 4th of this year, according to Cox Automotive, though they’re expected to surge earlier taxation credits are phased retired September 30.

Energy storage, connected nan different hand, has been growing consistently successful caller years. New installations successful nan first 4th of this twelvemonth deed a caller record, up 57% year-over-year.

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