Keeping EVs clean | One of the biggest tech acquisitions of the year | Eversource exit

Welcome to the BBJ's LinkedIn Weekly Edition! I'm Digital Editor?Jess Aloe, bringing you the top business stories from this week. Here's what you need to know:

Keeping EVs clean?

The adoption of electric vehicles is on the rise, yet one problem that’s rife with economic, technical and environmental challenges is still awaiting an answer: What to do with EV batteries that have reached their end of life?

EVs, often touted for their positive environmental impact, are powered by internal batteries weighing the equivalent of an adult male moose. In most cases, they require sky-high carbon emissions — and a lot of money — to be recycled.

Some of the key players tackling different aspects of the battery recycling problem are emerging right here in Massachusetts. In Westborough, Ascend Elements has developed a method to transform discarded lithium-ion batteries into cathode materials, the battery’s positive electrode.

And in Beverly, Nth Cycle is working on a clean process to recover the minerals that are key components of lithium-ion batteries.?

In separate interviews, both CEOs of Ascend Elements Inc. and Nth Cycle Inc. described their technologies as “complementary,” and stressed the challenges the nascent industry of EV battery recycling is facing.?

“What we’re doing is, we’re helping close the loop,” Ascend Elements CEO Mike O'Kronley . “Our raw material, or our feedstock, is essentially other people’s trash.”

Read more in this week’s cover story.

Plus, here are the Boston-area communities with the highest rates of electric vehicle ownership?

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Join the Boston Business journal on May 31 for our Business of Pride event! We will celebrate and honor our 2023 LGBT Corporate Ally Award honorees for their longstanding commitment to the Greater Boston community and honoring our 2023 LGBT Trailblazer Award honorees for their distinguished record of leadership in the LGBT community. Register here.

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Here's what else you need to know:

Eversource kills offshore wind partnership

Following a months-long strategic review, Eversource Energy plans to exit its 50-50 offshore wind joint venture partnership with ?rsted , the Danish energy giant.

Eversource said Thursday it has agreed to sell its 50% interest in a seabed floor area to ?rsted for $625 million cash.?Find out more about the partnership’s collapse.?

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Desktop Metal to be acquired in $1.8B deal

Burlington-based Desktop Metal said Thursday that 3D printing company Stratasys will buy a controlling stake in the company. It's one of the largest acquisitions involving a Bay State tech company so far in 2023.

Desktop Metal Inc., which went public through a reverse merger in 2020, plans to merge itself with Stratasys through an all-stock transaction valued at $1.8 billion. Find out the details.?

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Here’s what it takes to be a vendor at Boston Calling

It’s not only music that's going to greet thousands of people in Allston this weekend at Boston Calling. It's also the food vendors, armed with extra napkins and ready to feed hungry festival-goers.

But business owners say it’s not easy being a food vendor at one of New England’s biggest festivals. Read more.

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A Boston hotel is heading to foreclosure

The 178-room Club Quarters - Boston hotel appears headed to foreclosure after negotiations stalled on a delinquent commercial mortgage-backed securities loan valued at $274 million, according to a disclosure this month to bond investors in a CMBS industry report. Read more.?

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