Hundreds of used electric vehicle battery packs are enjoying a second life at a California facility connected to the state’s power grid, according to a company pioneering technology it says will dramatically lower the cost of storing carbon-free energy.
B2U Storage Solutions Inc, a Los Angeles-based startup, said it has 25 megawatt-hours of storage capacity made up of 1,300 former EV batteries tied to a solar energy facility in Lancaster, California. The project is believed to be the first of its kind selling power into a wholesale market and earned $1 million last year, according to Chief Executive Freeman Hall.
Though the technology is nascent, grid-scale storage provides a useful destination for the millions of used battery packs that will come from the transition to electrified transportation in the coming years. It is also a more cost-effective way to deploy the massive amounts of battery capacity needed to store solar and wind energy for when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.
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