In March, I visited an odd place within the excessive desert east of Reno, Nevada.That is the place JB Straubel’s startup Redwood Supplies is popping an unlimited hoard of outdated batteries into useful elements that energy electrical automobiles and different new units.The weirdest half: Redwood’s HQ was surrounded by huge new information heart initiatives. Proper reverse, a ginormous Google complicated rose up from the scrub and brush. And the hills round had been flattened like pancakes, awaiting much more of those beasts.The demand for information facilities is exploding due to generative AI. The GPUs and different gear required to coach and run AI fashions are extraordinarily energy-hungry, which suggests there’s a large new demand for energy to function these services.Redwood has taken the trace from its large neighbors. On Thursday, the startup unveiled a brand new enterprise referred to as Redwood Vitality to assist energy the AI growth by repurposing used batteries into power storage techniques.
Redwood Supplies’ campus in Nevada, with its new power storage system on the left, a photo voltaic array within the heart, and a Google information heart on the far proper.
Redwood Supplies
From EV batteries to powering the AI eraRedwood Supplies made its identify extracting useful metals and minerals from end-of-life batteries and channeling this again into the EV provide chain. Its newest transfer goals to seize the large second-life worth these batteries can supply earlier than they’re recycled.Yearly, Redwood processes greater than 20 GWh of used lithium-ion batteries, representing about 250,000 EVs, or 90% of lithium-ion batteries recycled in North America. The corporate says most of these battery packs nonetheless retain 50% to 80% of their unique capability. Whereas now not appropriate for automobiles, they’re viable for stationary power storage, particularly in an period the place information heart power wants are skyrocketing.The current explosion of AI information heart building round Redwood’s Nevada campus paints the image. These services demand extra energy than conventional cloud infrastructure, and the present grid struggles to maintain up. Enter Redwood Vitality.
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Reinventing power storage
A Redwood Supplies power storage system for a modular information heart in Nevada, considered from above.
Redwood Supplies
Redwood Vitality goals to remodel frivolously used EV batteries into power storage techniques that may serve information facilities, industrial prospects, and the grid. Its first deployment is already dwell: a battery system with 12 MW of energy and 63 MWh of storage that powers a 2,000-GPU information heart for Crusoe, an AI infrastructure agency. It is the biggest second-life battery deployment on the earth and the largest off-grid information heart in North America, in keeping with Redwood.Redwood says its system sidesteps fossil fuels, reduces carbon emissions, and avoids the allowing delays of conventional infrastructure. It additionally prices lower than new lithium-ion installations, due to Redwood’s vertically built-in course of from assortment and diagnostics to integration and remaining recycling.A full-circle power platform
A Redwood Supplies employee surrounded by battery packs which are a part of the corporate’s new power storage system.
Redwood Supplies
The spine of Redwood’s answer is a longtime and succesful logistics and diagnostic system. It recovers greater than 70% of battery packs from throughout North America. Its in-house software program evaluates every battery to find out if it is match for reuse.Redwood integrates certified packs, no matter unique producer, into power storage techniques. After they lastly attain end-of-life, Redwood funnels the batteries again into its recycling operation to recuperate metals and minerals for brand new batteries.”We’re enthusiastic about this new enterprise line,” mentioned Chris Evdaimon, an funding supervisor at Baillie Gifford, a serious backer of Redwood Supplies. “It’s an expression of the moat they’ve been constructing across the assortment and qualification of end-of-life EV and storage batteries.””The simplicity and effectivity of their power storage system design, when it comes to infrastructure necessities and skill to be off-grid, is a perfect answer for the ever-growing information heart power necessities,” he added.Evdaimon praised the corporate for having “nice timing, important scaling alternative, and doubtlessly a cash-generative enterprise from the start,” which can assist with Redwood’s funding in recycling and cathode lively supplies (CAM).You’ll be able to learn extra about CAM, also referred to as the brand new black gold, right here.Scaling with the market
A modular information heart on the Redwood Supplies campus in Nevada, with supporting battery packs.
Redwood Supplies
The chance is immense. Greater than 100,000 EVs will attain end-of-life this yr within the US alone. Over 5 million EVs on US roads characterize 350 GWh of latent power storage capability, and that quantity grows by 150 GWh yearly, Redwood estimates.Redwood Vitality expects to deploy 20 GWh of second-life battery storage by 2028. That power might energy AI supercomputers, stabilize grids, and retailer renewable power for cities, whereas lowering prices and emissions in comparison with conventional power sources.In a world racing to affect and feed the AI beast, Redwood provides a possible win-win: environmental sustainability and financial scalability. As grid demand surges and geopolitical threat complicates international provide chains, Redwood’s American-made, infinitely recyclable answer could show to be a cornerstone of AI’s new power economic system.Join BI’s Tech Memo e-newsletter right here. Attain out to me through e-mail at abarr@businessinsider.com.
