A privately-owned Chinese company has pledged around $200 million to establish a complex of EV battery recycling and “new energy storage” facilities in central China.
Xi’an Huaxin New Energy said it has signed a deal with the Shiyan economic-technological development area in Hubei Province to recycle 10,000 tons of new energy vehicle batteries at the site every year.
The recycling facility will be one of four battery-storage related projects at the site.
Another of the projects will feature “cascades” of used electric vehicle batteries for energy storage.
In addition, the investment will cover the development of a 300MWh peak shaving and storage project and 30MW/24MWh of rooftop photovoltaic storage.
The estimated total cost of the project is CNY1.2 billion ($190m).
According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from 2018, the country will have a large number of new energy vehicle batteries entering “retirement”— which will see China’s accumulated battery scrap reach a total of 120,000 to 170,000 tons by 2020.
BBB reported last month that the Chinese government had issued new energy battery recycling guidance to create a recycling network for used batteries.
Quick to respond to the government’s call was lead-acid player Camel, which plans to build a pilot lithium-ion battery recycling and anode material production plant in Central China.
