UC San Diego installs 500-kWh "second life" Battery Energy Storage System on Campus

March 9, 2023
Developer Smartville delivered its MOAB energy storage to store solar energy from a 200-kW rooftop solar array. The 500-kWh energy storage helps reduce the facility’s demand on the local utility grid after sunset

The University of California San Diego’s library annex is now utilizing a “second-life” energy storage system including repurposed, recycled batteries.

UC San Diego contracted developer Smartville to provide its MOAB energy storage to store solar energy from a 200-kW rooftop solar array. The 500-kWh energy storage helps reduce the facility’s demand on the local utility grid after sunset when the solar panels are no longer empowered.

MOAB repurposes electric vehicle battery packs from various manufacturers into one unified system. The system also can provide the university library annex with 48 hours of emergency backup power, according to the release.

It is Carlsbad, California-based Smartville’s first such product.

“This represents our first step in bringing a truly scalable EV battery repurposing solution to market and providing a domestically manufactured energy storage product to meet California’s and the nation’s infrastructure needs,” said Smartville’s CEO and Co-founder Antoni Tong. “To accelerate our next commercial milestone, we are now speaking with venture investors interested in advancing profitable, scalable, low-carbon, low-cost solutions to our sustainable future.”

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UC San Diego is touted as a top research university, citing some $1.64 billion in research funding for its fiscal year 2022. Sixteen Nobel laureates have taught at the campus in various fields.

Among those research disciplines studied at the university include neuroscience, work on airborne pathogens, climate change and oceanography, among others.