Recycler Redwood builds 63MWh second-life EV battery microgrid for AI data centre

By Molly Green
LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

Ex-Tesla CTO’s battery recycling and materials company Redwood Materials has launched a new business unit to repurpose second-life EV batteries for energy storage.

Redwood Materials, launched by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, through its new offering, Redwood Energy, has entered into a strategic partnership with Crusoe, a vertically-integrated AI infrastructure provider, to develop a microgrid powered by large-scale solar and second-life EV batteries.

Redwood says that it receives over 20GWh of batteries annually, representing about 90% of all lithium-ion batteries and battery materials recycled in North America, equivalent to 250,000 EVs.

Many of these retain over 50% useable capacity and Redwood launched the Redwood Energy division to offer low-cost, large-scale energy storage systems (ESS).

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

It says it has over a gigawatt-hour of reusable batteries in its deployment pipeline and is already designing projects 100MW+ in size.

The first deployment comes in the form of a 12MW/63MWh capacity microgrid, the largest deployment of second-life batteries globally and largest microgrid in North America, delivered in partnership with Crusoe.

The microgrid powers an AI data centre for Crusoe, which has built data centre campuses including a 1.2GW site in Abilene, Texas (part of the US$500 billion Stargate project) as well as modular data centres for advanced computing in remote oil fields.

Redwood estimates that over five million EVs are active on US roads, representing an estimated 350GWh of energy that will reach end-of-life in the coming years; it states over 100,000 EVs will come off US roads this year alone.

According to the firm, combined with 150GWh entering the commercial fleet annually, EV batteries could supply 50% or more of the entire energy storage market. 

When a battery is considered to have depreciated beyond use in an EV, it still has enough life to power other applications. This means several firms have built business models on using repurposed EV batteries for ESS—this requires slower minimum discharge than in an EV.

To read the full version of this story, visit Current.

Read Next

September 25, 2025
Microsoft, Sunrock, Zurich, and AlphaStruxure are among 20 participants joining Schneider Electric to deploy community-based energy systems across the US, supporting public and private sector organisations with “innovative solutions” and financing.
September 24, 2025
Just over 70% of the successful projects in the first window of the UK’s long-duration energy storage (LDES) scheme are using lithium-ion BESS technology.
September 24, 2025
A trio of energy storage startups: XL Batteries, Unbound Potential and Fourth Power, have raised financing for emerging flow battery and thermal storage technologies.
Premium
September 17, 2025
Investor-owned utility (IOU) Entergy is seeking regulatory approval from the Arkansas Public Service Commission (PSC) to construct what could become the largest BESS in the southern US State. It will support a data centre from Google.
Premium
September 16, 2025
Chinese energy storage companies active in the US face an uncertain future as federal policies encourage moves to reduce their supply chain involvement.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter