In a new step toward building a circular battery economy, General Motors (GM) and Redwood Materials have announced an expanded partnership that puts used and new EV batteries to work — not on the road, but powering energy-hungry data centers.
Redwood Materials, the battery recycling startup founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has started using battery packs from GM’s electric vehicles — both retired and unused — to build stationary energy storage systems. These systems are now part of a new microgrid setup at Redwood’s Sparks, Nevada headquarters.
That microgrid, with a capacity of 12 megawatts, is already live and delivering renewable energy to a nearby data center operated by Crusoe — a facility powered by over 2,000 GPUs.
From Cars to the Grid
Instead of tearing down battery packs for materials, Redwood found that many of the cells it receives still have significant usable life. So, rather than recycling them in the traditional sense, the company reassembles the packs into large-scale battery arrays capable of storing excess solar or wind energy for later use.
The batteries used in the Crusoe microgrid, for example, are charged using solar panels, making the entire system clean, sustainable, and cost-effective.
“This has the potential to grow even faster than our core recycling business,” said JB Straubel, Redwood’s CEO. That’s a bold claim, considering Redwood already processes roughly 70% of all used and discarded batteries in the U.S.
Redwood’s energy storage division, which launched publicly in June, aims to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of stationary storage by 2028.
GM’s Strategic Move
The collaboration between GM and Redwood isn’t entirely new — the two companies have worked together before. But what makes this latest announcement notable is GM’s willingness to also provide new EV batteries for these energy projects, not just retired ones.
That decision offers GM a strategic cushion against a volatile EV market. Sales of new electric vehicles dipped 6.3% in Q2 this year, according to Cox Automotive, and while a rebound is expected later in the year (thanks to looming tax credit deadlines), GM is wisely diversifying.
Energy storage, meanwhile, is surging. The first quarter of this year saw record-setting growth, with installations rising 57% compared to the same period last year.
Competitive Edge
Redwood isn’t alone in trying to give second life to EV batteries. But its ability to work with packs from multiple manufacturers — even with different chemistries and designs — could give it a significant competitive advantage in the race to scale battery-based grid storage.
By bridging the gap between electric vehicles and the energy grid, GM and Redwood are not only reducing waste but also helping solve one of renewable energy’s biggest challenges: storing power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
With this kind of innovation, what used to be just a spent battery could become a key building block of the next-generation energy infrastructure.
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