Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. has joined the list of investors in startup Element Energy, which says its technology can prolong the life of batteries, including ones re-purposed from electric vehicles.

The funding will help it launch a 50 megawatt-hour pilot project in Texas that redeploys used EV batteries to supply the grid. That site — with the storage equivalent of about 5,000 home batteries — will go online early next year. Commercialization is expected by the end of 2024.