Turning Used EV Batteries into Vital Energy Reserves for Manufacturing and Data Hubs
Published on: October 15, 14:04
Image: Energy storage components concept (Redwood Materials)
Redwood Materials, a U.S.-based company, has joined forces with electric vehicle maker Rivian to transform retired EV batteries into large-scale energy storage solutions for industrial plants. This innovative strategy addresses the critical electricity shortages faced by American factories and data centers, where delays in connecting new power sources to the grid can stretch over several years, disrupting continuous operations.
Though EV batteries lose their capacity for long-range driving after extended use, they still retain enough power to serve as stationary energy storage. Redwood Materials collects these used batteries from Rivian’s service centers, where they are swapped out during maintenance. The company then sorts through the batteries, assembling functional cells into energy storage units while heavily damaged batteries undergo thorough recycling to recover valuable metals.
Advantages of These Energy Storage Systems
One notable project involves a 10-megawatt-hour energy storage installation at a manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois—marking the first deployment of its kind on an automotive production site in the United States. The primary source of these batteries is Rivian’s service centers, where replacements are regularly made. However, integrating batteries that vary in chemistry, age, and wear presents complex engineering challenges.
To overcome these obstacles, Redwood engineers have developed custom DC converters and proprietary software to manage the operation of heterogeneous battery packs. This in-house technology minimizes equipment supply delays and allows flexible adaptation of storage systems to meet factory demands. While this approach is applicable beyond automotive uses, including powering AI server farms, global shortages of transformers and inverters remain a bottleneck.
Looking ahead, Redwood plans to connect their battery storage units with solar farms and other renewable sources to build self-sufficient microgrids. Such systems promise to enhance energy reliability for industrial sites and data centers while decreasing reliance on conventional power grids.
By repurposing used electric vehicle batteries into efficient energy storage, Redwood Materials’ initiative offers a promising solution to improve electricity management at American factories and data centers. This not only cuts energy costs but also advances environmental sustainability through resource reutilization.
As demand for electricity grows alongside the shift toward cleaner energy, projects like these are poised to play a key role in shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing and data infrastructure.