A 28-megawatt-hour battery storage facility built entirely from repurposed electric vehicle batteries has begun commercial operations near San Antonio, marking the second such project in Texas for California-based B2U Storage Solutions, the company announced last week. The Bexar Martinez installation in CPS Energy territory joins B2U's growing portfolio of "second-life" battery projects that extract additional value from EV batteries no longer suitable for vehicles. The company said it has secured enough battery capacity for many gigawatt-hours of annual deployment in coming years, despite a slowdown in EV sales following the end of federal purchase incentives last September.
The San Antonio project contains more than 700 batteries previously used in electric cars and has a rated power capacity around 10 megawatts, making it eligible for faster connection under ERCOT's streamlined process for small generators. B2U now operates at least 100 MWh of second-life battery installations across Texas and California, according to the company. The firm expects to deploy more than 50 MWh in ERCOT over the next six months and is working on several additional "Texas 10" projects that could break ground this year and provide grid services in 2027. B2U's total pipeline exceeds 1,000 MWh across front-of-meter and behind-the-meter projects in ERCOT and other markets, CEO Freeman Hall said.
Hall told Utility Dive that a June 2026 supply agreement with Waymo, the autonomous mobility company, will provide B2U with "hundreds of megawatts of storage capacity" over time as batteries age out of Waymo's robotaxi fleet. He added that recent data showing EV batteries degrade more slowly in real-world conditions than earlier lab tests predicted will likely boost long-term EV adoption. Geotab's 2024 analysis of 11 EV models found an average annual degradation rate of 1.8%, leaving the typical car battery with roughly 91% usable capacity after five years. Hall noted that installed costs for a typical B2U project come in as much as 40% lower than "competing BESS solutions … with equivalent reliability and performance," and the projects qualify for the Section 48(e) investment tax credit's domestic content bonus adder.
The slower-than-expected battery degradation benefits both automakers and the repurposed battery storage ecosystem, Hall explained, because it extends the useful life of batteries in vehicles before they're available for grid storage while also ensuring those batteries retain more capacity when repurposed. An electrical engineering professor at West Virginia University told IEEE Spectrum in July that second-life batteries account for less than 3% of deployed energy storage capacity today but could reach 20% to 25% in the 2030s if battery health diagnostics continue to improve. B2U expects other factors—including improved battery capacity and range, reduced battery costs, and rising EV adoption rates—to increase the available supply of second-life batteries over time, with much of the Waymo supply connected to grids in communities the mobility company serves.
B2U is currently operating its two ERCOT installations on a merchant basis while completing tolling agreements with third parties. The company's pipeline of more than 1,000 MWh represents a significant expansion of second-life battery deployment, with projects expected to come online throughout 2027 and beyond as the supply of aged EV batteries grows and diagnostic technology improves.