GM Teams Up with Redwood Materials to Power Data Centers with EV Batteries

GM is partnering with Redwood Materials to recycle both new and used EV batteries. Redwood repurposes these batteries for stationary energy storage, as announced today.

Batteries from GM have been processed by Redwood and utilized in a 12-megawatt microgrid at Redwood’s headquarters in Sparks, Nevada. The electricity generated by this system powers a nearby data center with 2,000 GPUs owned by Crusoe.

This microgrid is part of Redwood’s newly launched energy storage division, aimed at reusing EV batteries for large-scale energy storage solutions. Testing has shown that many of the batteries received still have a substantial amount of usable life remaining.

Instead of breaking the materials down, Redwood keeps the packs intact and connects them to create a significant energy storage system that captures surplus electricity, mainly from solar and wind sources, for later use. The batteries powering the Crusoe project are charged by solar panels.

“I believe this could evolve even more quickly than our core recycling operations,” stated Redwood co-founder and CEO JB Straubel. Currently, Redwood recovers around 70% of all used or discarded batteries in the U.S., with plans to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of energy storage by 2028.

While Redwood is not the only player in this field, its capacity to integrate various battery packs from different manufacturers and chemistries could give it a competitive edge.

GM and Redwood already have a partnership in place, but this new initiative marks an expansion of their collaboration.

An important detail is GM’s decision to provide Redwood with new batteries in addition to the used ones, acting as a safety net against fluctuating EV sales. According to Cox Automotive, new sales fell by 6.3% in the second quarter of this year, although they are anticipated to increase ahead of the tax credit expiration on September 30.

Conversely, the energy storage market has experienced steady growth in recent years. In the first quarter of this year, new installations reached a record high, growing by 57% year-over-year.