B2U Powers Up Second Texas Second-Life Battery Project — SkimNews
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- B2U Storage Solutions commissioned the 28-MWh Bexar Martinez battery storage project in CPS Energy territory near San Antonio, its second "second-life" energy storage installation to reach commercial operations in ERCOT.
- The Bexar Martinez project uses more than 700 repurposed electric vehicle batteries and has a rated capacity around 10 MW, making it eligible for faster energization under ERCOT's interconnection process for small generators.
- B2U says it has at least 100 MWh of operational second-life battery installations and plans to deploy more than 50 MWh in ERCOT over the next six months, with a total pipeline exceeding 1,000 MWh across ERCOT and other markets.
- CEO Freeman Hall said installed costs for a typical B2U project run 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.
- B2U's June supply agreement with Waymo will provide "hundreds of megawatts of storage capacity" over time from autonomous-vehicle batteries as they age out of the fleet.
- Hall cited Geotab's 2024 finding that EV batteries degrade at an average 1.8% annually — retaining about 91% capacity after five years — as a tailwind for both EV adoption and second-life battery supply.
Why it matters: B2U's claimed 40% cost advantage over competing battery storage, layered onto a 1,000-MWh pipeline and a Waymo feedstock deal, gives second-life batteries a credible path to scale in ERCOT — even though they still account for less than 3% of deployed storage today and ERCOT's small-generator fast track is what lets these 10-MW projects actually get built.
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