Tucked between two large buildings within the hills of the Nevada desert, 805 retired EV batteries lie in a neat formation, every one wrapped in a nondescript white tarps — and hiding in plain sight.
A passerby may not understand that it’s the biggest microgrid in North America, that it’s powering a 2,000 GPU modular information heart for AI infrastructure firm Crusoe, or that it’s Redwood Supplies co-founder and CEO JB Straubel’s subsequent huge act.
Redwood Supplies introduced Thursday throughout an occasion at its Sparks, Nevada facility it was launching an vitality storage enterprise that may leverage the 1000’s of EV batteries it has collected as a part of its battery recycling enterprise to supply clear energy to corporations, beginning with AI information facilities.
The brand new enterprise, known as Redwood Vitality, is kicking off with associate Crusoe. The previous EVs, which aren’t but prepared for recycling, retailer vitality generated from an adjoining photo voltaic array. From right here the system, which generates 12 MW of energy and has 63 MWh of capability, sends energy to a modular information heart constructed by Crusoe, the AI infrastructure firm finest recognized for its large-scale information heart campus in Abilene, Texas, the preliminary website of the Stargate venture.
Redwood mentioned it recovers greater than 70% of all used or discarded battery packs in North America. It has apparently been stockpiling batteries that aren’t prepared for recycling, with greater than 1 gigawatt-hour price in its stock already. Within the coming months, it expects to obtain one other 4 gigawatt-hours.
By 2028, the corporate mentioned it plans to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of grid-scale storage, inserting it on monitor to turn into the biggest repurposer of used EV battery packs.
For example the dedication of Redwood — and by extension, Straubel — the corporate’s complete occasion from the lights and DJ to the meals and massive display, have been powered by the microgrid.
“We needed to go all in,” Straubel mentioned, breaking into a large toothy smile. Splashy results for the occasion apart, the microgrid arrange with Crusoe shouldn’t be an indication venture. Straubel mentioned this can be a revenue-generating operation, and one that’s worthwhile. And much more of those will probably be deployed with different prospects this 12 months.
“I believe this has the potential to develop sooner than the core recycling enterprise,” he mentioned.
Redwood Supplies has been on an growth tear in recent times. The corporate, which has raised $2 billion in non-public funds, was based in 2017 by Straubel, the previous Tesla CTO and present board member to create a round provide chain.
The corporate began by recycling scrap from battery cell manufacturing in addition to shopper electronics like cellular phone batteries and laptop computer computer systems. After processing these discarded items and extracting supplies like cobalt, nickel and lithium which can be usually mined, Redwood provides these again to Panasonic and different prospects. However the firm has expanded past recycling and into cathode manufacturing. Redwood generated $200 million in income in 2024. A lot of that comes from the sale of battery supplies like cathodes.
It’s footprint has grown too, and properly past its Carson Metropolis, Nevada headquarters because it locked up offers with Toyota, Panasonic, and GM, began building on a South Carolina manufacturing unit, and made an acquisition in Europe.
Redwood Vitality is the subsequent step, one which isn’t tied to establishing its programs to be off grid. The retired EV batteries may be powered by wind and photo voltaic, or it may be tied to the grid. Within the case of the Crusoe venture, it’s powered by photo voltaic.
“There’s no inexperienced intent required right here,” CTO Colin Campbell mentioned throughout a tour of the microgrid. “It’s a great financial alternative that additionally occurs to be carbon free.”
For over a decade, corporations have been promising to construct grid-scale storage from used EV batteries, however they’ve solely materialized in small quantities. Redwood, which received its begin as a battery supplies and recycling firm, is creating a brand new enterprise line that guarantees to ship gigawatts of a lot wanted vitality storage in only a few years.
“This actually demonstrates how economical the waste hierarchy truly is,” Jessica Dunn, a battery professional on the Union of Concern Scientists, advised TechCrunch. That a big recycler like Redwood acknowledged the revenue potential in reprised EV batteries reveals “the place this finish of life market will go,” she added.
Redwood was based to construct a provide chain that might deal with the anticipated wave of used EV batteries that may hit the market. However that wave hasn’t materialized fairly as shortly as some predicted.
Repurposing batteries is a transparent enterprise alternative for Redwood, however it may also be a enterprise crucial.
“If Redwood didn’t enter the repurposing market, then they wouldn’t get a share from the repurposed battery. They’d have to attend the 5, ten, 15 years till they retired.” she mentioned. Within the meantime, different corporations would have the ability to promote the batteries for grid-scale storage, reducing Redwood out of years of income.
Straubel acknowledged this, noting in an interview that in some ways Redwood Supplies began a bit early.
“We began actually early, and in a method we began Redwood nearly too early,” he mentioned, noting the corporate initially was gathering shopper batteries and manufacturing scrap forward of the approaching wave of EVs.
“Proper now, the recycling market is generally manufacturing scrap, shopper electronics, and EV batteries which have failed beneath guarantee,” Dunn mentioned. That has been sufficient for Redwood to course of over 20 gigawatt-hours yearly, however it pales compared to the 350 gigawatt-hours in EVs right this moment and the 150 gigawatt-hours anticipated to hit the highway yearly.
Redwood at present has a recycling facility at its 175-acre campus in Sparks, Nevada, and it’s creating a 600-acre facility in Charleston, South Carolina. The latter will remanufacture cathode and anode copper foil, each of which comprise vital minerals that the U.S. would like stayed inside its borders.
The corporate beforehand mentioned that it is going to be able to making 100 gigawatt-hours yearly of cathode energetic materials and anode foil by the top of this 12 months. By the top of the last decade, it expects manufacturing to hit 500 gigawatt-hours.