The United States Department of Energy has announced that invest $20.3 million to build a new, first-of-its-kind facility in Taylor to help reuse and recycle electric vehicle batteries.

The installation will be led by Energy of the momenta Canada-based company that specializes in giving used electric vehicle batteries a second life.

“It turns out that 80% of these batteries have, on average, 80% of their original capacity left when they are removed from the car,” one of the company’s co-founders, Sumreen Rattan, told KUT. “So our goal is to make sure that these batteries go through a full circular economy, that we reuse them and use them to their full potential.”

He said his company typically focuses on reusing batteries for off-grid power generation projects, providing a sustainable backup power method that can be used during natural disasters and grid failures.

But Rattan said Moment Energy also plans to use the facility in Taylor to reuse batteries so they can help power other nearby industrial and manufacturing operations.

“We can help them … have the power they need to run their manufacturing lines and install things like electric vehicle chargers for their employees or for their own customers outside the building,” he said.

It’s an exciting prospect for Dave Porter, director of Williamson County Economic Development Partnership.

“(The electric vehicle industry) is one of our key targets because of the proximity to Tesla… to San Antonio, to Toyota and to Dallas,” he said. “Being on the I-35 corridor, with SH 130 looping around Austin, really puts Williamson County in a good position to get some of these projects done.”

In fact, the Austin area leads the state in electric vehicle adoption. Last year, data showed that 2.1% of vehicles registered in Travis County are battery-powered cars and trucks. Williamson County was not far behind, as 1.5% of the county’s registered vehicles were electric.

Dave Tuttle, researcher UT Austin Energy InstituteHe said finding ways to reuse and recycle electric vehicle batteries is becoming increasingly important as more and more people adopt electric vehicles.

“Sooner or later everything in a car ends up wearing out,” he said. “And that’s why people are looking forward to when we have millions of electric vehicles and they finally age: …What do you do responsibly with those batteries?”

Design and development of the Moment Energy facility in Taylor is expected to begin early next year. The project is expected to create more than 200 new jobs.