A California energy startup has turned more than a thousand electric vehicle (EV) batteries into solar power storage capsules, in an intriguing effort to prove out an alternative to traditional recycling.

Why it matters: Electric cars are cleaner than their gas-guzzling counterparts, but their batteries extract a significant ecological toll in the form of mining and manufacturing.

-Repurposing old EV batteries can maximize their lifetime use, thus squeezing more benefit out of each battery made.

-Energy storage, meanwhile, can help alleviate solar energy's intermittency problem — meaning, batteries can store solar power to be used when the sun isn't shining.

\MORE INFO: Axios

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