B.C. startup puts a fresh charge into used EV batteries

This article was written by Pippa Norman and was published in the Globe & Mail on June 20, 2024.

Moment Energy hopes to boost country’s aging power grid

An energy storage systems manufacturer is giving electric vehicle batteries a place to retire, and a second life to provide a much-needed boost to Canada’s aging power grid as it struggles to keep up with soaring demand. Moment Energy, headquartered in Coquitlam, B.C., is repurposing used EV batteries into moveable power units that are being installed across the country to support buckling infrastructure. Since the start of 2024, the company has made a series of promising deals with partners such as the Vancouver International Airport and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

In a satisfying full-circle business model, Moment Energy purchases used EV batteries from automakers and puts them together to create larger, rechargeable energy storage systems that can be plugged into local power grids to support new EV chargers. Co-founder Sumreen Rattan said when an EV battery is replaced, it typically has around 80 per cent of its capacity left. For the heavy carbon footprint it takes to manufacture the battery, that means at least 10 years of its life are often wasted. “They’re either sitting on shelves, being sent to landfills, producing toxic waste or being prematurely recycled in the best case, besides repurposing,” Ms. Rattan said.

Power consumption doesn’t always match power production, but with an energy storage system, the two actions can get more in sync. This can also reduce the cost and pollution associated with generating energy.

Moment Energy’s units are designed to charge while demand is low and provide power when stress on the grid is high. This is key if Canada wants to rely more heavily upon renewable energy sources, said Ali Hooshyar, an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto. Renewables, such as solar and wind, are intermittent, meaning they’re not always available.

“We need to store that energy when it is available in some form, for example, like battery systems, and then use that power when the renewable source is not available, like overnight for solar power plants,” Prof. Hooshyar said

Canada is electrifying rapidly. The country needs to more than triple its power generation capacity to meet the federal government’s net-zero emissions goal by 2050, according to a report by the Ivey Energy Policy and Management Centre at Western University. The report outlines actions that the authors deem necessary, such as building more than 23,000 kilometres of high voltage transmission lines and investing in energy storage technologies, which together will total a cost of more than $1.1-trillion over the next 26 years.

Governments across Canada are pouring billions of dollars into ramping up EV production, including $5-billion in support announced in April by Ottawa and the Ontario government for a $15billion Honda EV battery plant in Alliston, Ont. But as more Canadians choose to plug in instead of fuel up, provincial power grids are feeling the strain. Tens of thousands of Albertans felt the crunch in January, and then again in April, when rolling brownouts unfurled across the province owing to a shortage of electricity.

Around the same time, Moment Energy announced it had been awarded US$6-million in tax credits from the IRS, to help it build one of the world’s largest facilities dedicated to repurposing retired EV batteries for grid support. The tax credits are being given out by the U.S. government for investments in advanced energy projects, providing the project can meet certain wage and apprenticeship requirements.

The company is growing in step with North America’s escalating electrification. Since Moment Energy was founded in 2020, it has grown from Ms. Rattan and her three co-founders working out of her parents’ garage to a team of about 40. Together, they’re collaborating with automakers such as Mercedes-Benz AG and Nissan Motor Corp., and are targeting a global battery energy storage market that is predicted to be valued at more than US$30-billion a year by 2030.

In May, Ontario announced its procurement of 2,195 megawatts of capacity in battery storage from 10 projects in the province – which is enough to power the peak demand from 2.2 million homes. Prof. Hooshyar said he expects the recent focus on the technology by governments as a way to decarbonize power systems will help expedite that technology’s growth and affordability.

A pilot project in Ottawa is testing what’s possible with Moment Energy’s energy storage units to support residential EV chargers. Shawn Conkwright, a director at the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), the not-forprofit Ontario Crown corporation that operates the province’s electricity market, said the project is being supported by the IESO’s Grid Innovation Fund to learn more about how energy storage systems can support the local power grid as more EV charging stations plug in and increase demand.

“If you think about vehicles connecting into Hydro Ottawa’s grid, depending on when and where they’re charging, that could be a very big draw on their system,” Mr. Conkwright said.

Ms. Rattan said the Vancouver International Airport will have one of Moment Energy’s largest storage units installed by January, 2025, where it will store 240 kilowatts of power – the capacity of about seven EV batteries. At maximum power, the unit will be able to run for just over an hour. The lower the power, the longer it can run.

There’s room for innovation here, Prof. Hooshyar said. “The limitation is not on the electrical side, it’s on the chemical side.” He’d like to see more research done on how chemical systems inside batteries used for energy storage can be improved to make the batteries last longer.

As long as Canada plans to rely upon renewable energy, Prof. Hooshyar said energy storage systems will need to be part of the solution. However, he said that size matters, and his hopes rest more upon large battery power plants than smaller units such as Moment Energy’s. For example, the Hagersville Battery Energy Storage Park in Hagersville, Ont., is being built to store 300 megawatts of power and should become operational by late 2025.

But Moment Energy’s commitment to repurposing mass-produced EV batteries continues to set it apart in the energy storage industry, and Ms. Rattan said the company really wants to concentrate on that specialty.

“We started the company based on seeing that problem in circularity that we wanted to solve, and now we’re really excited that we can use retired EV batteries to provide clean, reliable and affordable power to those who need it,” she said.