Redwood Materials was started in 2017 by JB Straubel, Tesla’s former Chief Technology Officer. Now, the company is taking a bigger step into the energy storage field, with a new announcement. To date, the company has raised a remarkable $2 billion in private funding. It seeks to form a circular supply chain that includes recycling and repurposing of batteries, in part to feed the increasing demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
Originally headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, Redwood Materials recently relocated its headquarters to Sparks, Nevada and has already built a recycling facility on its huge 175-acre campus. The firm reprocesses more than 20 gigawatt-hours (GWh) worth of batteries annually. That represents enough energy to fully charge about 250,000 electric vehicles (EVs). The move will help WM prepare for the upcoming electric vehicle boom. In order to safeguard a circular and therefore sustainable supply chain, it has already begun to collect consumer batteries and production scrap.
Redwood expects to bring an additional 4 GWh of battery materials into its supply in the coming months. This influx will compound on its already strong stock, which as of today exceeds 1 GWh. The company is going all in on recycling. In addition to that, it’s growing by establishing a new, 600-acre campus in Charleston, South Carolina. This facility will be instrumental to the company achieving Redwood Materials’ lofty production targets.
The company is anticipating more than $200 million in revenue for 2024. Much of this expansion will be driven by the manufacturing and sale of battery making ingredients, namely cathodes. By the end of this year, Redwood expects to have the capacity to produce 100 GWh of cathode active material. They’ll additionally be manufacturing anode foil at the same capacity. What’s next for Redwood Materials? Redwood Materials has a goal to deploy at least 20 GWh of grid-scale storage by 2028. This ambitious goal makes them a leader in the rapidly changing energy landscape.
Redwood’s cutting edge microgrid boasts of 12 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity—all while keeping pollutants out of the surrounding community. This exciting system has a capacity of 63 megawatt-hours (MWh). This microgrid provides energy to a modular data center of sorts, which Crusoe, an AI infrastructure company, has been operating inside the fortress. Redwood is dedicated to the principles of sustainability and efficiency in our rapidly changing digital world. We’re demonstrating this commitment by combining energy storage with smart AI data centers.
JB Straubel sounded optimistic about the company’s upcoming projects. He stated, “I think this has the potential to grow faster than the core recycling business.” This outlook emphasizes the growing need for advanced energy storage technologies. Demand is at an all-time high, by all accounts, and particularly from tech companies.
Jessica Dunn, a spokesperson for the company, spoke to the TCEQ about the evolving field of battery recycling. “Right now, the recycling market is mostly manufacturing scrap, consumer electronics, and EV batteries that have failed under warranty,” she noted. This deep understanding of infrastructure, communities, and mobility underscored Redwood’s clever decision to play in the repurposing market from the get-go.
Dunn further elaborated on the necessity of this shift, stating, “If Redwood didn’t enter the repurposing market, then they wouldn’t get a share from the repurposed battery. They’d have to wait the five, 10, 15 years until they retired.” This forward-thinking approach helps keep Redwood at the cutting edge of breaking innovations throughout the battery lifecycle.
Some of the company’s most impressive accomplishments are a result of its early efforts in battery recycling. JB Straubel remarked, “We started really early, and in a way we started Redwood almost too early.” It’s this foresight that has given Redwood the ability to quickly and efficiently establish a strong foundation for its current operations and future expansion.
This fruitful expansion lays fertile ground for the company to address the burgeoning problem of battery waste and fulfill its long-term vision for energy sustainability. The company has been very proactive to conserve and recycle, repurpose. This tactic is not only in-tune with widespread environmental sentiments, but demonstrates its commitment to encouraging a circular economy.
