October 29, 2026 update Redwood says the 10 MWh system is now at Normal The project has moved beyond the April announcement's future-tense description. In an October 14 update, Redwood CEO JB Straubel described the 10 MWh second-life system as already at Rivian's Normal, Illinois plant and said the companies are deploying storage directly at Rivian manufacturing facilities. That is a material change from the original deployment plan. The update does not give a commissioning date, measured factory bill savings, or a site-specific availability figure, so it should not be read as a verified performance report. Source: Redwood, October 14 . The original April 14 partnership announcement specified more than 100 Rivian packs and an initial 10 MWh of dispatchable energy for reducing peak-demand costs and grid load. Neither that release nor the October update provides a Normal-site MW rating. Energy capacity alone therefore does not establish how many hours the system can sustain a particular factory load. It also does not establish that the plant can operate independently of the grid. Source: original partnership announcement . Pack Manager is power electronics, not just software Redwood's October 23 technical interview with CTO Colin Campbell adds an important detail to the integration story below: Pack Manager is custom power electronics, supported by controls, rather than simply a software product. Campbell describes it as a translator across battery manufacturers, voltages, and chemistries. Straubel's October 14 account identifies in-house DC-DC converters as the hardware that lets the company combine returning packs into a single system. That distinction matters because software alone cannot reconcile incompatible electrical interfaces. Source: Redwood CTO interview, October 23 . Campbell says incoming packs receive a rapid electrical-health and remaining-capacity assessment alongside a physical inspection. Packs that meet Redwood's capacity and safety thresholds enter storage; those that do not go to recycling and materials recovery. The interview says the electrical assessment takes minutes, but does not publish the acceptance thresholds, detailed test protocol, or a Normal-specific warranty. Buyers still need those specifications before treating a reused pack as equivalent to a new, warranted storage product. The factory becomes part of a collection network The October 14 update also identifies Rivian service centers nationwide as collection points for batteries leaving service. That connects the factory storage project to a repeatable supply channel, rather than a one-time batch of used packs. Redwood says field-return data across battery ages and use cases informs its integration work. The commercial test is whether collection, screening, power conversion, and eventual recycling together cost less than the value of the storage service they deliver. Redwood points to a separate operating reference: its 12 MW / 63 MWh Crusoe AI-data-center microgrid. In the October 23 interview, Campbell reports more than 99% availability since launch and a sevenfold increase in Crusoe's campus compute power draw. Those are company-reported results for the Crusoe installation, not performance measurements from Rivian's Normal plant. They support the case that Redwood has operating experience while leaving the factory project's actual savings, cycling history, and degradation to be demonstrated. What to watch next A factory-specific operating report should disclose the system's MW rating, usable energy under warranty, dispatch history, verified demand-charge savings, and maintenance requirements. The October news strengthens the deployment and supply-chain story. It does not yet settle the long-term economics of Rivian's second-life system. Rivian and Redwood Materials are giving used EV packs a second job inside the auto industry itself. The companies announced on April 14, 2026, that more than 100 second-life Rivian battery packs will be integrated into a 10 MWh stationary storage system at Rivian's manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois. The first use case is practical: shave peak demand, lower energy costs, and make factory power more flexible. 10 MWh Initial storage capacity 100+ Rivian EV packs reused Normal, IL Factory site for the system From warranty pack to grid asset The packs in the project come from sources such as warranty returns, test vehicles, and early high-mileage fleets. Those batteries may no longer be ideal for an electric truck or SUV, where weight, range, packaging, and customer confidence are strict. But many still hold enough usable capacity to work in a stationary system, especially when software can manage differences in age, chemistry, and state of health. That is Redwood's role. Its Redwood Energy business integrates the packs and uses Redwood Pack Manager software to operate them as one dispatchable resource. The software has to do more than turn packs on and off. It must track capacity, temperature, voltage behavior, degradation, safety limits, and available power across packs that did not all live the same first life. The result is a storage system made from assets that might otherwise move directly into recycling. Recycling remains critical, and Redwood is best known for recovering battery materials. But a pack that can serve several more years in stationary storage before recycling can extract more economic value and reduce the need for new cells in some applications. Why put second-life batteries at a factory? Manufacturing plants are good hosts for batteries because their power bills are shaped by peaks. A short period of high demand can increase monthly charges. A battery can discharge during those peaks, reducing the plant's demand from the grid. That is peak shaving, and it is one of the most reliable business cases for behind-the-meter storage. The system can also help Rivian manage operational resilience. It is not a replacement for the grid, and 10 MWh is small compared with the energy needs of a major auto plant. But it can smooth short spikes, support critical loads, and help the site respond to utility signals. If paired with on-site solar or future power purchase arrangements, it could also shift lower-cost energy into higher-cost hours. There is symbolic value too, but the economics matter more. A second-life battery project located at the same company that produced the packs creates a cleaner loop. Rivian gets a use for returned or aged packs. Redwood gets a live operating case for heterogeneous battery management. The factory gets a power asset. The final recycling stream remains available later. Key Insight Second-life storage only works if software can turn uneven packs into a predictable asset. Redwood is trying to make that integration layer the business, not just the recycling step. A test of the second-life promise The battery industry has talked about second-life EV packs for years. The logic is appealing. Vehicle packs often retain a meaningful share of their capacity after they are removed from cars. Stationary systems do not need the same energy density. Reuse could lower costs, reduce waste, and create a bridge before materials are recycled. The hard parts are less glamorous. Used packs vary widely. They come from different model years, climates, charging habits, accidents, warranty histories, and software versions. Testing takes time. Pack disassembly and recertification can be expensive. Safety rules are still evolving. If labor and diagnostics cost too much, a new LFP storage system may be cheaper and easier to finance. That is why this Rivian project is useful. It keeps the pack population relatively controlled because the batteries come from one automaker's ecosystem. It places the system at an industrial site with a clear energy use case. It gives Redwood operating data. It does not ask second-life batteries to compete immediately in every utility-scale procurement against brand-new containers with