The nice electrical automobile transition could solely be beginning, however Tesla co-founder JB Straubel is set to put the groundwork for a severe push into battery recycling. And if the previous Tesla CTO’s current statements are any indication, it seems that his labor of affection, Redwood Supplies, is already exhibiting lots of enterprise potential.
Straubel was just lately interviewed by the Related Press, the place he touched on a number of topics reminiscent of the necessity for battery recycling and the state of Redwood’s present operations. In response to Straubel, he initially thought that Redwood could be fairly early within the battery recycling recreation. Thus far, nevertheless, the corporate is studying that there’s already a lot demand for battery recycling — a lot in order that the corporate has extra feedstock than it will probably course of.
“I’ve been actually shocked at what number of different sources of present lithium-ion battery supplies there are to recycle that weren’t being addressed. We’ve really had extra feedstock than we are able to even course of within the first few years of our ramp up. Simply based mostly on a mixture of manufacturing scrap from the lithium-ion manufacturing course of, in addition to an entire variety of shopper lithium-ion batteries, issues like lawnmowers and cell telephones and toothbrushes, there’s lots of materials,” he mentioned.
Redwood Supplies, which is predicated in Carson Metropolis, Nevada, presently employs over 300 employees. The corporate has secured contracts for battery recycling with a number of firms. Panasonic, which produces 2170 battery cells for the Tesla Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y at Gigafactory Nevada, additionally gives Redwood supplies with scrap. The Japanese battery maker introduced that it might be utilizing Redwood’s recycled supplies for battery manufacturing later this yr.
Whereas Redwood is de facto simply beginning to achieve its momentum, Straubel revealed one thing very attention-grabbing in his current interview. When requested by the AP if Redwood was already “promoting these things and earning money,” the Tesla co-founder was fast to level out that the corporate is presently targeted on development. But when one have been to take a look at Redwood Supplies’ precise battery recycling operations, that a part of the enterprise is already worthwhile.
“We’re. We’re not worthwhile but as a result of we’re rising so rapidly and we’re reinvesting and will probably be for fairly a number of years. However the precise operations of recycling these batteries, that’s worthwhile right this moment. There’s actually a fairly a starvation for these supplies,” Straubel mentioned.
Redwood Supplies will probably be extraordinarily busy over the following few years. In a current press launch, the battery recycling firm introduced plans to ramp its copper foil manufacturing to 100 GWh of product yearly over the following few years. Such an quantity could be sufficient copper foil to assist the buildout of about 1 million electrical autos yearly. The corporate can also be searching for its subsequent web site, which might be targeted on cathode manufacturing as a substitute. An announcement for Redwood Supplies’ upcoming cathode plant is anticipated to be launched someday this yr.
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