New SoCal Company Figuring Out How To Prop Up CA Power Grid With Used EV Batteries

Those big, cumbersome, expensive batteries…filled with rare minerals mined by low-paid laborers in Third World countries…yes, those batteries could be used to power California’s electric grid in the future.

A startup company in suburban Los Angeles, in the desert town of Lancaster, is working on connecting thousands of used electric vehicle batteries to the California power grid.

Right now the cost of  storing energy in batteries is costly and inefficient.

The Times of San Diego  reports  B2U Storage Solutions is starting with 13 hundred batteries, looking to store 25 megawatts of energy.

This is the first attempt at something like this.

Storage is becoming more necessary  because California politicians don’t want to use reliable fossil fuels that available 24 hours a day.

Instead, the push is on to use wind and solar energy, which are NOT available 24 hours a day.

Solar energy is only available when the sun is up, and wind power is only available when the wind is blowing.

The goal is to store solar and wind power…in batteries at the time when they are generated, and then use that power when it is needed.

B2U says its technology could lower energy storage costs by 40 percent.

Tesla battery packs are seen in Kevin Erickson’s electrified 1972 Plymouth Satellite at his Commerce City, Colo., home on Sept. 20, 2022. Erickson is part of a small but expanding group of tinkerers, racers, engineers, and entrepreneurs across the country converting vintage cars and trucks into greener, often much faster, electric vehicles. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
used locally Feb 17th 2023

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