Old EV Batteries Now Power Data Centers With 99% Uptime

Data centers just got a clean energy makeover, and the results are better than anyone expected.

Eight months ago, Crusoe and Redwood Materials launched an experiment in Nevada: power modular data centers entirely with solar panels and used electric vehicle batteries. The gamble paid off. The system ran 99.2% of the time, beating targets and running entirely on renewable energy with zero fossil fuels.

The approach solves two major problems at once. Traditional data centers wait years to connect to the power grid, delaying construction and limiting growth. Meanwhile, thousands of EV batteries retire from the road each year with plenty of power left for a second life.

Redwood Materials, America's largest EV battery recycler, tests each incoming battery and repurposes the healthy ones for energy storage. The company built technology to monitor and manage hundreds of these batteries working together as a microgrid. Crusoe contributed shipping container sized data centers that can be factory built and quickly connected on site, skipping lengthy construction timelines.

The first installation sits at Redwood's Nevada campus. The companies built a small solar field and battery network in just a few months last year, then connected four modular data center units. Now they're building 20 more units at a Colorado factory, increasing computing power nearly seven times over.

The solar array was intentionally oversized, so the new units will simply use power that would otherwise go to waste. No additional panels needed.

The Ripple Effect

The timing couldn't be better. Artificial intelligence is driving explosive demand for data centers, which already consume massive amounts of electricity. This model shows tech infrastructure can grow without increasing carbon emissions or straining power grids.

The supply chain works in their favor too. Even a small percentage of EVs leaving the road creates enough retired batteries to power stationary energy storage at scale. As electric vehicle adoption accelerates, so does the supply of batteries ready for their second act.

JB Straubel, founder and CEO of Redwood Materials, notes that the crossover is just beginning. The number of available EV batteries will only grow, creating an expanding resource for clean energy storage that was previously too expensive to deploy at scale.

The success proves that going off grid with renewables isn't just possible but practical, letting companies control their own timelines instead of waiting in utility queues for years.

Clean energy just became the faster, cheaper option for powering our digital future.