ZHENGZHOU - A power battery recycling center has been put into operation in the city of Xinxiang, Central China's Henan province, to satisfy the electricity demand of the large-scale 5G construction.

Founded by China Tower, China's telecom tower infrastructure services provider, the center will be responsible for battery recycling, testing and processing, electricity supply and energy innovation for seven provinces and municipalities across China.

The center has built a production line for semiautomatic medium-sized battery disassembly and automatic packing, with an annual throughput capacity of 1.8 billion watt-hours, which is equal to the electricity used by 42,000 electric cars a year.

China's new-energy cars are expected to reach up to 6 million by 2020 when 200,000 tons of power batteries are estimated to retire. The retired battery piles, if not properly dealt with, will pose a great threat to the environment.

"The center will serve as a platform in building an integrated system of recycling retired power batteries and accelerating the application of related technological breakthroughs," said Liu Guofeng, vice general manager of China Tower.