Ford partnered up with EV battery recycling company Redwood Materials years ago, and has since been joined by more than one of its rivals in the quest to recycle and remanufacture those spent units into critical battery components for cell manufacturing – preventing all of it from winding up in a landfill in the process. That list includes the likes of Toyota and Ford’s cross-town rival, General Motors, the latter of which is once again partnering with Redwood Materials on a new energy storage program.
According to GM Authority, The General now plans to expand upon its existing relationship with Redwood Materials by working to fast-track the development of a large-scale energy storage system, which will utilize the automaker’s existing battery technology. The companies have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding as a result, all with an eye toward meeting ever-growing energy needs while also using both new and old EV batteries to do precisely that.
Redwood Materials launched a new company last month – Redwood Energy – that is already planning to use battery packs from salvaged GM EVs for energy storage purposes, things such as backup power for AI data centers, as one example. GM notes that data center energy consumption is expected to grow tremendously in the coming years, growing from around 4.4 percent in 2023 to 12 percent in 2028 – highlighting the need for new energy centers to be built to support that growth.
Ford CEO Jim Farley recently admitted that The Blue Oval may get into the energy storage business itself, though the automaker is already using spent battery packs for a variety of efforts. Those include teaming up with a company called ATC to develop two portable generators that utilize Ford Mustang Mach-E array/modules, partnering with BBB Industries and TerrePower to harvested Mach-E batteries from totaled vehicles and use them to provide power for a manufacturing plant in Tennessee, and working with B2U Storage Solutions to use 30 Focus Electric battery packs to test battery storage solutions with a goal of providing energy back to the grid in times of peak usage.
Comment
I live in Pennsylvania and recently a large AI consortium met at CMU to celebrate billions in AI investments. They did mention the additional energy consumption this initiative would require, repurposing old coal plants to using Natural Gas…but I don’t think the public fully understands the impact these giant server mines will have on surrounding real estate developed and otherwise, plus the additional strain on the energy infrastructure.
It sounds good…hundreds maybe thousands of jobs…but is the full impact really being digested?
The more storage technology that can be developed, the better! We’re going to need it!