British Columbia start-up Moment Energy has landed $21.7 million from an investor group led by online retail giant Amazon to build the world's first factory dedicated to repurposing used EV batteries for larger commercial-scale energy storage systems (ESS).
Moment, which has now raised more than $75 million including $20 million from the US Department of Energy, plans to build the gigafactory near Austin, Texas, to supply the American market.
But it will also now double the size of its headquarters outside Vancouver, in Port Coquitlam, where it has pioneered 'second life' recycling of the lithium-ion battery modules into larger energy storage units, for locations including the Vancouver airport and Tofino General Hospital.
The two Moment manufacturing facilities, when fully operational, will give new life to about 50,000 used EV batteries a year, which the company is sourcing through contracts with automakers including Germany’s Mercedes Benz and Japan’s Nissan, CEO Edward Chiang told Canada's National Observer.
"Our global headquarters will stay where it is — we plan to expand it into a 25,000 square foot facility in 2026 where we will do manufacturing for the Canadian and European markets, R&D [research and development] and testing. Only production of batteries for the U.S. will be done in the Texas facility," he said.
EV batteries consist of a pack of eight modules built into the floor of the vehicle. After 10-15 years, one or several of the modules will generally only be chargeable to about 50 per cent of their original capacity. But if deteriorating modules are removed, those that remain can be repackaged and charged up to 90 per cent or higher, said Chiang, with a new battery being installed in the EV.
Instead of spending the roughly $4,000 it would cost an automaker to recycle an EV battery for its critical minerals, Moment removes the highest-performing modules and installs them into a conventional steel cabinet used for stationary batteries that can be installed in commercial-scale applications or residential neighbourhood charging stations.
"We can serve as a catalyst for a new circular economy that increases energy security as energy demand rises,” Chiang said.
The market for battery-based energy storage is expected to reach $150 billion by 2030 driven by global demand of 1.2 terawatt hours, according to Statista, a third-party data platform. Second-life batteries totaling some 953 gigawatt hours are expected to be ready for repurposing by 2030.
Chiang said the company sees a "significant opportunity to leverage this growing resource and meet the increasing demand for sustainable energy storage solutions."
“Elegant solution” to battery recycling
“Moment’s second-life battery solution addresses a growing recycling challenge to offer an elegant solution to scalable energy storage,” said Nick Ellis, principal at the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, which co-led an investor group with venture capitalists Voyager Ventures.
In Europe, a new law came into force last year that required carmakers to repurpose or recycle old batteries, but in North America only the state of New Jersey has such legislation. "But this will start changing," he said.
By Moment's calculations, its recycled batteries — like new ones — will have 10-year warranties and a 20-year life, but will be 30 per cent less expensive than off-the-shelf ones. On a $500,000 to $1 million energy-storage project at a commercial site, this amounts to "huge savings," on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Chiang.
Powering its energy-hungry Port Coquitlam battery-repurposing facility will be a challenge for Moment, which is considering building an off-grid plant — backed up with its own recycled batteries — to supplement electricity fed in from the BC Hydro grid.
"It would cost tens of millions of dollars to upgrade the power lines and transformers that feed our facility," said Chiang, "so we are waiting to see what BC Hydro can supply us and considering standalone generation, with our batteries built in. It will be much cheaper."
With the U.S. threatening to impose tariffs on all Canadian exports as early as Jan. 20, Chiang said Moment is fortunate to soon have factories on both sides of the border.
“We don’t see energy storage getting caught up in the tariffs, because the U.S. wants to decouple from China [the biggest battery producer in the world] and so Canadian batteries like we are manufacturing fit into its energy security strategy,” he said, “and even if there were tariffs [on Canadian batteries], we still have our U.S. facility.”
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