The electric afterlife: What are we going to do with all those EV batteries?

11/16/23 • 22 min

Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World

The future of the automobile is electric. Yet the surge in electric vehicles raises critical concerns regarding battery creation, disposal and recycling. What will happen once all those cars reach the end of the road? In this episode of Solve for X, we address the environmental footprint of EV batteries, confront the challenges posed by the existing regulatory landscape and highlight opportunities for second-life applications. It turns out that batteries are capable of more than you might expect, and can teach us a lot about how to design for the future.

Featured in this episode:

Andy Latham is the founder and CEO of Salvage Wire, an auto recycling consultancy based in the United Kingdom. As an automotive engineer and entrepreneur, he teaches auto salvagers how to safely handle EV batteries, aiming to promote advancements in auto recycling globally.
Jessica Dunn is a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Her research looks at the potential of recycling and repurposing of lithium-ion batteries.
Claus Eckbo is the owner and director of God’s Pocket Resort, an off-grid scuba lodge in British Columbia that uses repurposed EV batteries for both energy generation and storage.
Edward Chiang is the co-founder and CEO of Moment Energy. The company’s innovative solution converts electric vehicle batteries into sustainable energy storage systems for microgrid, commercial and industrial customers.

Further Reading:

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Featured in this episode:

Andy Latham is the founder and CEO of Salvage Wire, an auto recycling consultancy based in the United Kingdom. As an automotive engineer and entrepreneur, he teaches auto salvagers how to safely handle EV batteries, aiming to promote advancements in auto recycling globally.
Jessica Dunn is a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Her research looks at the potential of recycling and repurposing of lithium-ion batteries.
Claus Eckbo is the owner and director of God’s Pocket Resort, an off-grid scuba lodge in British Columbia that uses repurposed EV batteries for both energy generation and storage.
Edward Chiang is the co-founder and CEO of Moment Energy. The company’s innovative solution converts electric vehicle batteries into sustainable energy storage systems for microgrid, commercial and industrial customers.

Further Reading:

Previous Episode

Drain brain: Meet the man who is fixing our wastewater problem

Wastewater, the world’s dirty (not so little) secret, consumes nearly 3 percent of the global electricity demand. It’s a staggering statistic, and yet much of what actually happens with wastewater remains a mystery. Treatment plants typically purify water by infusing it with oxygen, creating an environment where bacteria can break down waste. But without proper sensors or data, the method is incredibly energy-intensive. Plus with an influx of unregulated chemicals, our waste streams are becoming more toxic and harder to clean. In this episode of Solve for X, environmental microbiologist Patrick Kiely shares his unusual solution that harnesses the power of bacteria to help solve our wastewater problem. Unpleasant yet fascinating, Kiely’s work offers a glimpse into what it takes to clean our water and why treating wastewater is the next big climate problem.

Featured in this episode:

Patrick Kiely is the CEO and founder of SENTRY, a real-time monitoring biosensor system for wastewater treatment. With extensive training in environmental microbiology, his unique knowledge of bacterial growth across diverse environments forms the basis for advanced decision-making in water and wastewater technologies.

Further Reading:

Next Episode

Decade of decisions: How better infrastructure can transform our world

From Wi-Fi to power stations, roads to pipelines, our infrastructure is stressed. Built for a climate that no longer exists, our systems are failing at an increasing pace. But to fix what’s broken goes beyond structural repair — we also need to address the inequities baked into our infrastructural systems and injustices from past developments. Amid these challenges, we have the chance to reimagine the future of infrastructure for a better world. On this episode of Solve for X, we sit down with Deb Chachra, author of the new book How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World, to rediscover the hidden beauty of infrastructure and how we can harness the collective power these systems bring to our lives.

Featured in this episode:

Deb Chachra, professor of engineering at Olin College and author of How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World. Her work spans across multiple disciplines, including engineering education, gender issues, materials science and the intersection of technology and culture.

Further Reading: