Stroll with JB Straubel by means of the Redwood Supplies recycling plant in Carson Metropolis, Nevada and one factor stands out: Pallets stacked on high of pallets full of outdated batteries, faulty battery cells and scrap materials from the close by Panasonic plant.
“The sheer magnitude of the waste and scrap drawback and the magnitude of batteries that must get recycled is, I believe, stunning to most individuals,” stated Straubel, the founder and CEO of Redwood Supplies. Straubel spent greater than a decade at Tesla, earlier than resigning as chief technical officer in 2019 so he may give attention to rising his recycling firm.
Redwood Supplies has reached an settlement to recycle scrap and faulty battery cells for Envision AESC, which manufactures batteries for the Nissan LEAF in Smyrna, Tennessee. It’s the newest transfer for the corporate Straubel began in 2017 to provide battery makers and auto firms with uncooked supplies in brief provide as EV manufacturing surges all over the world.
“We convey the supplies again to a really clear and type of elementary state so there is no such thing as a loss in effectiveness,” stated Straubel. “It is really indistinguishable whether or not there may be cobalt coming through an outdated battery or from a mine.”
Cobalt, lithium, nickel and different minerals and metals utilized in EV batteries have change into very popular commodities, so scorching, costs have rocketed to 52-week highs. Fueling the rise in costs is an introduced surge in lithium-ion battery manufacturing as automakers from Tesla to General Motors and Ford dramatically improve EV plans over the subsequent decade.
“To make the batteries the world wants in ten years, the trade will want 1.5 million tons of lithium, 1.5 million tons of graphite, 1 million tons of battery-grade nickel and 500,000 tons of battery-grade manganese. The world produces lower than a 3rd of every of these supplies right now. New battery supplies sources are extremely valued and desperately wanted,” stated Sam Jaffe, Managing Director at Cairn ERA, an power consulting agency.
To drive house his level, Jaffe factors out U.S. lithium-ion battery demand topped 43 megawatt hours final yr and can climb to 482 megawatt hours by 2030.
The expansion is unbelievable information for Panasonic, which manufactures battery cells on the Gigafactory it operates with Tesla in Sparks, Nevada. Due to its newest growth, the Gigafactory will produce just below 2 billion battery cells this yr.
Allan Swan, who runs the plant, says much more manufacturing is required. “Right here in america, we actually want 4, 5, six of those factories to assist the automotive trade,” he stated.
Celina Mikolajczak, vp of engineering and battery expertise at Panasonic Power North America, believes the booming EV plans means the trade has to have a look at recycling batteries as a brand new supply for key minerals.
“There’s a variety of power spent extracting these minerals and it makes completely no sense to landfill them,” she stated. “We’d be actually silly if we did not make the most of the capability of older cells, to create the subsequent technology.”
Straubel and his staff at Redwood prefer to say the most important lithium mine is within the junk drawers of America. It’s a reminder Redwood is positioning itself to recycle a variety of lithium-ion batteries, not simply people who go into electrical automobiles. Nonetheless, given Straubel’s lengthy tenure at Tesla and his huge data of the EV market, he’s intently watching the quickly increasing EV market.
As Straubel ripped open the packaging holding an outdated laptop computer battery that had been shipped to Redwood Supplies, he sized up the pallet of outdated batteries stacked as excessive as his waist. He estimates there could also be a billion batteries in outdated laptops, cell telephones and lengthy forgotten cordless instruments sitting round U.S. houses.
“I am slightly stunned that a few of the huge OEMs (automakers) have taken maybe slightly longer to get absolutely pivoted and oriented on this course,” stated Straubel. “I am additionally slightly stunned at what number of different profitable and rising startups there are.”
Lots of these start-ups have change into publicly traded firms by means of SPAC mergers. Straubel thinks a few of the startups are intriguing, however a number of could have weak or questionable enterprise plans. Which of them? Straubel will not say, however he does have these phrases of warning for traders.
“Suppose calmly about the actual marketing strategy and the long-term potential,” he stated.
CNBC’s Meghan Reeder contributed to this text.