Marketplace Tech A recycling startup joins the AI boom
Jan 29, 2026
Colin Campbell, CTO at Redwood Materials, leads R&D and engineering for EV battery recycling and reused-battery grid projects. He tours the lab and explains how recycled EV packs can power off-grid AI data centers. He discusses a Nevada 60 MWh reused-battery grid, why AI favors fast battery-plus-renewables deployments, and plans for gigawatt-scale manufacturing.
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Inside Redwood’s R&D Lab
- Colin Campbell toured Meghan McCarty Carino through Redwood's San Francisco R&D lab full of circuit boards and fridge-like devices.
- He described EV battery packs as the core of vehicles, likening them to a black skateboard with wires.
AI Spurs Demand For Fast Energy Solutions
- AI companies prioritize speed and often choose battery storage plus renewables because it's faster than grid interconnection.
- This urgency makes reused-EV-battery solutions attractive to data centers seeking quick, local power.
Nevada Off-Grid Battery Deployment
- Colin recalled activating a large-scale reused EV battery grid in Nevada to power a data center disconnected from the grid.
- He noted the deployment took only four months to build and used 60 megawatt hours of reused batteries.