Waymo’s old electric vehicle batteries no longer go directly to recycling. Instead, they will now help store clean energy for local power grids.
On Thursday, the robotaxi company announced a new partnership with B2U Storage Solutions, which specializes in reusing electric vehicle batteries for grid-scale storage systems.
“Our shared fleet of electric vehicles provides a great opportunity to support the growth of clean energy on the electric grid while expanding the circular economy,” said Adam Lenz, Waymo’s Chief Sustainability and Environment Officer, in a statement. Press release. “Through this partnership, we can repurpose our batteries for storage on the local grid and ensure they continue to provide economic and environmental value to the community long after they have been taken off the roads.”
According to the company, after Waymo’s electric vehicle batteries are no longer suitable for driving, they will be sent to B2U Storage Solutions to help stabilize power grids, extending their useful life in the process.
“We will be receiving thousands of batteries from Waymo, and these batteries can last seven or more years powering the grid with clean energy,” B2U Storage Solutions CEO Freeman Hall said in a video about the association.
The batteries will be used specifically to store excess renewable energy when production peaks in the middle of the day and then dispatch that energy during peak demand at night.
Hall described the process as plug-and-play, meaning the company can take a car battery and connect it to the grid in a matter of days.
The video shows the batteries placed in server-like sheds, with several racks containing six batteries each.
Waymo says the partnership could eventually deploy hundreds of megawatt-hours of storage capacity. The first deployments will be in Texas and California, where the company already operates robotaxis fleets.
The news comes as Waymo has been rapidly expanding its fleet and coverage area. The robotaxi startup announced last month that it is expanding its coverage area in Miami and will soon increase its presence in Austin, Atlanta, Houston and the San Francisco Bay Area.
In total, Waymo said it would cover more than 1,400 square miles in 11 cities. The company boasted that its coverage area will eventually be larger than the entire state of Rhode Islandwhich is approximately 1200 square miles.
The company also announced earlier this year that it plans to scale production at its Phoenix-area factory to tens of thousands of vehicles per year.
Tesla had only 42 registered robotaxis at the end of May, according to a Texas Department of Motor Vehicles database. In contrast, Waymo had 577 registered vehicles in the state.
