The robotaxi company Waymo has announced new capabilities that provide benefits completely distinct from its primary business model.
Waymo says that the large, heavy, power-intensive batteries that power its fleet will no longer go to a recycling center at the end of their lives. Instead, they have a new use: supporting the power grid.
Through a new partnership with B2U Storage Solutions, Waymo’s batteries will be repurposed in order to store clean energy. But rather than in one-off implementations, the goal for this effort is to establish grid-scale storage systems.
Adam Lenz, head of Sustainability & Environment at Waymo, “Our shared fleet of EVs provide a massive opportunity to support the growth of clean energy on the electricity grid while expanding the circular economy,” adding it was important to the company that the batteries continue to provide “economic and environmental value” after they were retired from the road.
The plan goes hand in hand with solar power, according to Waymo, who contends that the batteries will primarily be used to store the surplus energy produced during peak hours – namely the middle of the day when the sun is at its highest point. The batteries will then distribute that power during peak demand in the evenings.
They say the process is largely plug-and-play, with batteries coming from cars and capable of being online in this power storage capacity within a matter of days.
The first deployments derived from the partnership will take place in Texas and California – two states who not only have a significant need for electrical grid support but who also happen to already host Waymo fleets.
Fellow automaker GM also recently revealed that it was expanding into different battery cell chemistries for varied uses – notably to increase its vehicle-to-grid capabilities. The automaker hopes to take advantage of the growth in AI data center development and use its batteries to help offset the strain on the nation’s utilities.
