Second Life Provides Extra Inexperienced Punch To EV Battery Recycling


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The rising demand for lithium and different battery supplies has dumped a load of provide chain baggage onto electrical autos, a lot to the delight of critics. They’re laughing now. Nonetheless, options are rising because the EV battery recycling area cranks up and expands to incorporate second life repurposing as nicely.

EV Battery Recycling Meets Second Life

The thought of repurposing used EV batteries for stationary vitality storage has been percolating below the floor since at the very least 2011, when Ford connected a 50-kilowatt array of EV batteries to photo voltaic panels at one in all its meeting vegetation.

Again then, EV battery recycling and repurposing each confronted a serious impediment. There merely weren’t sufficient used batteries in circulation to make a enterprise out of coping with their afterlife.

A lot has modified since then. EV gross sales proceed to develop and so has the EV battery recycling area. Nonetheless, recycling is an energy-sucking operation. By way of environmental impression, the longer a battery can stay in use earlier than recycling, the higher.

One issue working in that course is at this time’s technology of longer lasting EV batteries. Now that extra knowledge is obtainable on real-life EV driving habits, proof is rising that the on-road lifetime of EV batteries far outlasts the span indicated by laboratory checks.

Nonetheless, finally an EV battery goes to shed its road-worthiness, and now a rising second life trade is there to choose up the slack.

A Second Life For EV Batteries: It’s Sophisticated

Repurposing used EV batteries for stationary vitality storage is a sophisticated maneuver. Among the many corporations to determine it out is the Canadian startup Second Power.

The corporate already payments itself as “North America’s main EV battery repurposing firm” and a accomplice with A-list automakers, together with Mercedes Benz’s Power department. They’ve additionally found out the place their goal market is.

“Second Power’s battery vitality storage programs (BESS) may be deployed in initiatives starting from 400 kilowatt hours (kWh) to 10 megawatt hours (MWh), focusing on an intermediate market section that’s presently underserved however essential to the clear vitality transition,” the corporate explains, paying attention to the market in EV charging area in addition to business and industrial operations.

As for the place all of the used batteries will come from, Second anticipates diverting a wholesome quantity from the EV battery recycling trade, citing an estimate of 953 gigawatt-hours price of of second-life batteries out there by 2030.

Right here Comes The Gigafactory

That’s good for starters, and the corporate has set its sights on increasing. Earlier this month the corporate introduced a profitable $15 million spherical of Sequence A funding co-led by the Amazon Local weather Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures, with the intention of establishing a giga-scale manufacturing unit within the US.

Different members had been the not-for-profit world accelerator In-Q-Tel, Model One Ventures, Overture Ventures, WovenEarth Ventures, Fika Ventures, MCJ, One Small Planet, and Local weather Capital.

In the event you’re questioning why the manufacturing unit is coming to the US and never Canada, that’s an excellent query. A part of the reply is the Biden administration, which awarded $20.3 million to the agency final 12 months for bringing its new gigafactory to Texas, together with greater than 250 new jobs.

In the event you’re questioning why Texas, that’s additionally an excellent query. Regardless of the state’s highlight place within the EV trade because the host of Tesla’s headquarters and manufacturing unit, Texas has earned a nasty popularity for EV adoption.

“Texas has cheaper electrical energy however a nasty ratio of EVs registered to charging ports and repair facilities. The annual financial savings on fuel cash is barely about $1,000, and there aren’t any tax incentives,” notes one analyst.

Nonetheless, absent any interference from the Trump administration, Texas will host a enterprise aimed toward accelerating the vitality transition and offering EV makers with a extra sustainable end-of-life resolution whereas having fun with the financial advantages of 250 new jobs. If all goes based on plan, Second will start getting ready for the design and improvement part of the brand new manufacturing unit throughout the subsequent couple of months.

“We function a catalyst for an thrilling new round economic system that will increase vitality safety as vitality demand rises,” enthused stated Second Power CEO Edward Chiang in a press assertion.

Replace: As of January 28, all federal funding is on maintain by order of the President. Sorry, Texas.

Extra & Higher EV Battery Recycling

If President Trump actually does pull the rug out from below these 250 new jobs in Texas, Second Power can merely pack up and take its jobs elsewhere. The corporate has a foothold past North America by way of its relationship with Mercedes-Benz and different automakers, and it’s presently engaged on an growth of its headquarters in Vancouver with a watch on the worldwide market.

In a associated matter, the Trump order additionally impacts Biden-era funding applications that supporting a brand new EV battery recycling trade within the US, and the roles that come together with it. If the intention is to harm Republican voters, that’s a great way to do it.

Final fall, for instance, the Biden administration introduced a brand new $44.8 spherical of funding divided amongst eight initiatives aimed toward bringing down the price of recycling. Three of the eight initiatives are spearheaded by A-list corporations with world and home manufacturing footprints. GM and Siemens every acquired virtually $8 million to display automated programs for battery dealing with at recycling amenities, and Caterpillar’s Built-in Elements and Options department acquired simply over $5 million to develop new battery pack designs that make EV battery recycling extra environment friendly and fewer labor-intensive.

If that help vanishes, GM, Siemens, and Caterpillar can pack up their new EV battery recycling expertise and take it elsewhere.

Talking of Caterpillar, the corporate went out of its approach to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration even earlier than Election Day. In September, the corporate joined a rising checklist of company residents to announce a rollback of their DEI (variety, fairness, inclusion) applications. A lot for that. Maybe they didn’t do sufficient currying. In spite of everything, you get what you pay for.

On a considerably brighter notice, the EV battery recycling agency startup Redwood Supplies, helmed by Tesla Motors co-founder JB Straubel (for the report, the opposite co-founder was Martin Eberhardt), appears to have gotten its operations below means earlier than the clampdown (see the complete CleanTechnica Redwood archive right here).

Observe me through LinkTree, or @tinamcasey on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Picture: Amazon’s Local weather Pledge Fund is supporting a brand new “second life” enterprise that enhances EV battery recycling, by extending the helpful lifetime of the entire battery (courtesy of Local weather Pledge Fund through LinkedIn).



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