Renewable-energy giant, Moment Energy, will ensure that Vancouver leads in battery repurposing shortly. This should happen when the company completes a mega reprocessing facility, by the end of June, 2026.
Their CEO was ecstatically confident when he chatted with Connect CRE. “This is about building the infrastructure we need to support the next generation of energy demand,” he enthused.
Why Battery Repurposing Matters in Vancouver
Vancouver faces the same challenges as many other first-rate cities. These include electrification of road transport, and an increasing volume of renewable energy. Both of these resources rely on batteries to do their work.
But these batteries do not last forever, and so Vancouver faces a mounting stockpile of used batteries. They contain valuable metals that Canada does not readily have available locally, meaning it relies on foreign suppliers.
It just makes more sense that Vancouver leads in battery repurposing instead. This process involves finding second-life applications for spent batteries, including the huge volume of used electric vehicle batteries accumulating.
However, we can’t just plug those batteries into new applications. The batteries are spent because their chemistry has degraded. But that is where a battery-repurposing industry comes in to close the gap.
How Vancouver Could Contribute to the Challenge
- Used batteries will first be collected, sorted and tested to see if they still have useful capacity.
- Damaged or unsafe units will be set on one side. Good battery packs will be cleaned, repaired and fitted with new control systems as needed.
- Cells may be need to be rearranged into new packs, for lower-demand jobs such as home energy storage or backup power.
- The repurposed batteries will then be tested for safety, charging and performance. Those that fail will be reviewed again.
- Those batteries that pass will go to new roles, and be monitored over time to ensure performance and safety.
- Batteries that cannot repurpose will go for recycling, to recover valuable materials for future batteries.
We are thrilled to see Vancouver leading in battery repurposing. Canada should aim for more energy independence, instead of relying on foreign suppliers.
More Information
Repurposing Batteries As Fertilizer
