California's Element Energy aims to provide first-rate cleaner power with second-life electric vehicle power packs.
While not a novel concept — fellow West Coaster B2U Storage has a similar facility using old Honda and Nissan packs — it's now reportedly the biggest such operation. And the developers tout cutting-edge tech, as well, according to Canary Media. Fittingly, this "largest" site is now online in Texas.
"The promise of our technology is, we can operate batteries that others can't," CEO Tony Stratakos told Canary.
The facility is storing power from a NextEra Energy Resources wind farm. After acquiring old battery parts, Element uses its own hardware and software to get further use out of them. The company's battery management system is what sets it apart. Instead of treating all cells in the setup the same, Element's tech has distributed power conversion. It uses cloud-based monitoring, adaptable to each cell, according to Canary and the company.
The precise cell management ensures the system maximizes each pack's ability without overstressing it, reducing dreaded fire risks, Canary added.
Element, citing BloombergNEF, the International Energy Agency, and other sources, notes on its website that U.S. EV sales' growth and "U.S. annual storage additions" are forecast to increase by more than 20% and 30%, respectively, through 2030. The agency reported that nearly 14 million new EVs were sold in 2023, a 35% increase from the prior year.
Reusing the spent packs as energy storers solves two problems. First, saving intermittent cleaner power from the wind and sun curbs production of heat-trapping air pollution from fossil-based energy sources. The planet-warming fumes are linked by NASA to increased risk for a worrisome list of severe weather events, including coastal flooding and droughts, which can impact our food and transportation sectors.
Secondly, the new life prevents the valuable, hard-to-recycle packs from being wasted. That's important because they are full of costly metals.
The batteries also address grid strain during peak evening hours, when the sun goes down but energy demand increases. It's part of a so-called duck-curve model explained by the U.S. Energy Department.
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For Element's part, the Texas site is a proving ground for its process. Since the company doesn't create power plants, Canary reported the goal is for storage developers to buy its refurbished packs and system, instead of new ones like Tesla Megapacks.
By leveraging used packs, Element told Canary it can cut up to 50% of the cost "on a fully installed basis." The company has batteries sitting in a Kentucky warehouse ready to store electricity.
"I don't think anyone has that volume (of second-life batteries) sitting there, ready to be deployed," Tim Woodward, managing director of investor Prelude Ventures, told Canary.
To power the work, Element has landed $125 million in investments since 2019. A growing partnership with LG Energy Solution Vertech is poised to help with operations and maintenance, all per the story.
What's more, another unique concept is coming out of England. Altilium and Lunaz are transforming old diesel trucks into energy vampires, which suck the last life out of old EV packs as they are carried to recycling centers. Data collector Statista expects the fast-growing EV pack recycling market to be worth $9.8 billion by 2028.
And recycling aging tech is an income source mostly anyone can leverage. Decluttr pays consumers to recycle old media and electronics, for example.
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