An worker appears for objects in one of many corridors at an Amazon warehouse.
Carlos Jasso | Reuters
Amazon, one of many largest shoppers of batteries on this planet, is investing in battery recycling start-up Redwood Supplies, an organization began by former Tesla government JB Straubel.
The funding, which wasn’t disclosed, is a part of $2 billion Amazon’s Local weather Pledge Fund is committing to Redwood Supplies and three different firms.
“Amazon’s funding is important due to its dimension and its dedication to have a extra sustainable footprint,” Straubel instructed CNBC. “The corporate has batteries in so many locations inside the firm, from Amazon Net Companies to client electronics to its rising electrical logistics fleet.”
Redwood Supplies will probably be working with Amazon to recycle electrical automobile batteries, different lithium-ion batteries and e-waste from numerous operations inside Amazon.
Straubel’s curiosity in battery recycling comes after spending greater than a decade serving to Elon Musk construct Tesla. As Tesla’s chief technical officer, he helped design the automaker’s lithium-ion battery powertrain. Whereas Tesla grew with Straubel as CTO, so did the automaker’s battery manufacturing Gigafactory exterior of Reno, Nevada. Redwood Supplies now has a recycling middle in Carson Metropolis, Nevada, not removed from Tesla’s Gigafactory.
“If you take a look at the way forward for transportation and electrification of autos, the variety of batteries that will probably be wanted is staggering,” mentioned Straubel. “We’re already recovering a lot of the metallic, lithium, nickel, cobalt from batteries we’re recycling. Now we have to do it extra effectively and at a vastly bigger scale.”
This isn’t the primary funding in Redwood Supplies by a fund tied to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Earlier this yr the corporate obtained roughly $40 million from traders lead by Capricorn Funding Group and Breakthrough Power Ventures, which incorporates Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Invoice Gates.
— CNBC’s Meghan Reeder contributed to this report.
