Energy
Tesla’s battery genius may hold the key to a closed-loop recycling endgame
Last year, a proverbial bomb dropped on Tesla after CTO and co-founder JB Straubel announced that he was transitioning into an advisor role and stepping away from his day-to-day duties in the company. While Straubel assured investors that he was not “disappearing” from Tesla in his final earnings call, he did stay notably under the radar following his departure. But as the date for the electric car maker’s Battery Day draws closer, it appears that some pieces are slowly falling into place suggesting that JB Straubel’s company, Redwood Materials, and Tesla, may be coming together at a key junction.
To state that JB Straubel was the backbone of Tesla’s industry-leading battery tech is no understatement. Much of the company’s breakthroughs in its battery-related efforts, such as the construction of Gigafactory Nevada, would not have been possible without Straubel’s genius. In fact, so notable were his contributions to Tesla’s battery tech in the company’s early days that he was eventually considered as a co-founder of the electric car maker.
But even during his last years at Tesla, Straubel has remarked that one key aspect remains missing from the EV transition — closed-loop battery recycling. Battery electric vehicles are great in the way that they are zero-emissions, after all, but disposing of their batteries at their end-of-life presents notable challenges under closed-loop recycling is developed. “Ultimately what we want is a closed-loop, right, at the Gigafactories that reuses the same, recycled materials,” he remarked at Tesla’s 2018 Annual Shareholders Meeting.
Prior to his departure from his day-to-day duties at Tesla, reports emerged stating that Straubel had founded a stealthy battery recycling startup called Redwood Materials. Interestingly enough, Redwood centered its operations in Nevada, the same state that hosts Tesla’s biggest battery facility to date, Gigafactory 1. When reports about Redwood initially emerged in 2018, however, Straubel was quick to note that his recycling startup’s operations are “unrelated to Tesla or to the Gigafactory directly.”
A recent report from The Wall Street Journal has now revealed some notable details that may explain some aspects of Straubel’s statement back in 2018. According to the publication, Redwood has already convinced Panasonic, Tesla’s battery partner at Gigafactory Nevada, to utilize Redwood’s technology to reclaim scrap from its operations in the facility. Panasonic reportedly started with a trial run that involved Redwood reclaiming more than 400 pounds of scrap from its Giga Nevada operations. The Japanese firm appears to have been satisfied with Redwood’s results in the trial run, as Panasonic reportedly upped its contract with the startup to 2 tons not long after.
Today, the Journal stated that all of the scrap coming from Panasonic’s side of Gigafactory Nevada’s battery production activities are being shipped to Redwood Materials for recycling. In a way, Redwood’s partnership with Panasonic seems to fit Straubel’s statement back in 2018, when he noted that his startup has no direct relation to Tesla’s operations. That being said, it is evident that Redwood’s tech is a notable step forward towards JB Straubel’s vision of a closed-loop battery recycling system.
Straubel’s plans for Redwood are ambitious, as he is looking to develop a recycling process that is so efficient that batteries coming from retired electric vehicles and energy storage units could be quickly stripped down, recycled for their core materials, and used to rebuild new batteries. With such a system in place, a closed-loop is created, and hardly any materials are lost. It’s a lofty goal, but it does hint at Straubel’s understated determination that made him such a powerful background force in Tesla.
Interestingly enough, Tesla’s new Impact Report specifically includes a section about closed-loop battery recycling. According to the electric car maker, such a setup at Gigafactory Nevada “presents a compelling solution to move energy supply away from the fossil-fuel based practice of take, make and burn, to a more circular model of recycling end-of-life batteries for reuse over and over again. From an economic perspective, we expect to recognize significant savings over the long term, as the costs associated with large-scale battery material recovery and recycling will be far lower than purchasing and transporting new materials.”
It remains to be seen if JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials and Tesla are indeed working together to recycle batteries from Gigafactory 1 and perhaps even the electric car maker’s own Roadrunner program, but despite the lack of confirmation for now, one thing is certain. One of the brightest minds in Tesla, who is arguably the genius behind the company’s battery tech and initiatives, has started a thriving company that fills in the crucial gap of battery recycling. And with such a key innovation at its doorstep, it appears out of character for Tesla to simply ignore the opportunities presented by Redwood Materials and its battery recycling technologies.
Energy
Tesla Energy celebrates one decade of sustainability
Tesla Energy has gone far since its early days, and it is now becoming a progressively bigger part of the company.
Tesla Energy recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a dedicated video showcasing several of its milestones over the past decade.
Tesla Energy has gone far since its early days, and it is now becoming a progressively bigger part of the company.
Tesla Energy Early Days
When Elon Musk launched Tesla Energy in 2015, he noted that the business is a fundamental transformation of how the world works. To start, Tesla Energy offered the Powerwall, a 7 kWh/10 kWh home battery system, and the Powerpack, a grid-capable 100 kWh battery block that is designed for scalability. A few days after the products’ launch, Musk noted that Tesla had received 38,000 reservations for the Powerwall and 2,500 reservations for the Powerpack.
Tesla Energy’s beginnings would herald its quiet growth, with the company later announcing products like the Solar Roof tile, which is yet to be ramped, and the successor to the Powerwall, the 13.5 kWh Powerwall 2. In recent years, Tesla Energy also launched its Powerwall 3 home battery and the massive Megapack, a 3.9 MWh monster of a battery unit that has become the backbone for energy storage systems across the globe.
Key Milestones
As noted by Tesla Energy in its recent video, it has now established facilities that allow the company to manufacture 20,000 units of the Megapack every year, which should help grow the 23 GWh worth of Megapacks that have already been deployed globally.
The Powerwall remains a desirable home battery as well, with more than 850,000 units installed worldwide. These translate to 12 GWh of residential entry storage delivered to date. Just like the Megapack, Tesla is also ramping its production of the Powerwall, allowing the division to grow even more.
Tesla Energy’s Role
While Tesla Energy does not catch as much headlines as the company’s electric vehicle businesses, its contributions to the company’s bottom line have been growing. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Tesla Energy deployed 10.4 GWh of energy storage products. Powerwall deployments also crossed 1 GWh in one quarter for the first time. As per Tesla in its Q1 2025 Update Letter, the gross margin for the Energy division has improved sequentially as well.
Tesla Energy shined in what was a weak delivery report for the first quarter, as the company’s frequently-forgotten battery storage products performed extraordinarily well.
Tesla reported its Q1 production, delivery, and deployment figures for the first quarter of the year, and while many were less-than-excited about the automotive side, the Energy division performed well with 10.4 GWh of energy storage products deployed during the first quarter.
This was a 156 percent increase year-over-year and the company’s second-best quarter in terms of energy deployments to date. Only Q4 2024 was better, as 11 GWh was recorded.
Tesla Energy is frequently forgotten and not talked about enough. The company has continued to deploy massive energy storage projects across the globe, and as it recorded 31.5 GWh of deployments last year, 2025 is already looking as if it will be a record-setting year if it continues at this pace.
Tesla Megapacks to back one of Europe’s largest energy storage sites
Although Energy performed well, many investors are privy to that of the automotive division’s performance, which is where some concern lies. Tesla had a weak quarter for deliveries, missing Wall Street estimates by a considerable margin.
There are two very likely reasons as to why this happened: the first is Tesla’s switchover to the new Model Y at its production facilities across the globe. Tesla said it lost “several weeks” of production due to the updating of manufacturing lines as it rolled out a new version of its all-electric crossover.
Secondly, Tesla could be facing some pressure from pushback against the brand, which is what many analysts will say. Despite the publicity of attacks on Tesla drivers and their vehicles, as well as the company’s showrooms, it would be safe to assume that we will have a better picture painted of what the issue is in Q2 after the company reports numbers in July.
If Tesla is still struggling with lackluster delivery figures in Q2 after the Model Y is ramped and deliveries are more predictable and consistent, we could see where the argument for brand damage is legitimate. However, we are more prone to believe the Model Y, which accounts for most of Tesla’s sales, and its production ramp is likely the cause for what happened in Q1.
In what was a relatively bleak quarter, Tesla Energy still shines as the bright spot for the quarter.
Tesla has chosen the location of its latest manufacturing project, a facility that will churn out the Megapack, a large-scale energy storage system for solar energy projects. It has chosen Waller County, Texas, as the location of the new plant, according to a Commissioners Court meeting that occurred on Wednesday, March 5.
Around midday, members of the Waller County Commissioners Court approved a tax abatement agreement that will bring Tesla to its area, along with an estimated 1,500 jobs. The plant will be located at the Empire West Industrial Park in the Brookshire part of town.
Brookshire also plans to consider a tax abatement for Tesla at its meeting next Thursday.
The project will see a one million square-foot building make way for Tesla to build Megapack battery storage units, according to Covering Katy News, which first reported on the company’s intention to build a plant for its energy product.
CEO Elon Musk confirmed on the company’s Q4 2024 Earnings Call in late January that it had officially started building its third Megapack plant, but did not disclose any location:
“So, we have our second factory, which is in Shanghai, that’s starting operation, and we’re building a third factory. So, we’re trying to ramp output of the stationary battery storage as quickly as possible.”
Tesla plans third Megafactory after breaking energy records in 2024
The Megapack has been a high-demand item as more energy storage projects have started developing. Across the globe, regions are looking for ways to avert the loss of power in the event of a natural disaster or simple power outage.
This is where Megapack comes in, as it stores energy and keeps the lights on when the main grid is unable to provide electricity.
Vince Yokom of the Waller County Economic Development Partnership, commented on Tesla’s planned Megapack facility:
“I want to thank Tesla for investing in Waller County and Brookshire. This will be a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for their Megapack product. It is a powerful battery unit that provides energy storage and support to help stabilize the grid and prevent outages.”
Tesla has had a lease on the building where it will manufacture the Megapacks since October 2021. However, it was occupied by a third-party logistics company that handled the company’s car parts.
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