'World's Largest Battery' Soon At Google Data Center: 100-Hour Iron-Air Storage (interestingengineering.com)
- Reference: 0180872148
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/02/28/0446211/worlds-largest-battery-soon-at-google-data-center-100-hour-iron-air-storage
- Source link: https://interestingengineering.com/energy/worlds-largest-battery-plan-for-google
> US tech giant Google announced on Tuesday that it will build a new data center in Pine Island, Minnesota. The new facility will be powered by 1.9 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy from wind and solar, coupled with a 300-megawatt battery, claimed to be the 'world's largest', with a 30-gigawatt-hour (GWh) capacity and 100-hour duration... The planned battery would dwarf a 19 GW lithium-ion project in the UAE...
>
> Form Energy's batteries work very differently from most large batteries today. Instead of using lithium like the batteries in electric cars, they store electricity by making iron rust and then reversing the rusting process to release the energy when needed... Form's iron-air batteries are heavier and less efficient than their counterparts; they can only return about 50% to 70% of the energy used to charge them, while lithium-ion batteries return [2]more than 90% . However, Form's batteries have one distinct advantage. They are cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, costing about $20 per kilowatt-hour of storage, which is almost three times as cheap... It will store 150 MWh of electricity and can supply to the grid for up to 100 hours, delivering about 1.5 MW at peak output.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [3]schwit1 for sharing the article.
[1] https://interestingengineering.com/energy/worlds-largest-battery-plan-for-google
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/24/googles-new-1-9gw-clean-energy-deal-includes-massive-100-hour-battery/
[3] https://www.slashdot.org/~schwit1
But how... ? (Score:2)
Rusting is an exothermic process, so you get energy from rusting, but it takes energy to reverse it. The summary is wrong, but the correct process is described in the body of the article.
It's something highly scalable (Score:2)
Battery grid storage is by now a fairly common product. You can buy integrated containers you only need to connect to the grid and your control system. If you want have a larger system you just order 1000 instead of 100 containers (and make sure the power lines are sufficient).
It's easier than, for example, making a giant ball of yarn, as such things don't scale well, every new layer of yarn is harder to put on than the previous. With grid storage you just need to buy more boxes.
This kind of stuff is the future (Score:2)
We’re getting close to the point where solar/wind will deliver an essentially infinite amount of energy when times are good. At least as far as our current needs go. Screw lithium ion for grid storage. That’s the right tech for mobile stuff. Dense, efficient, and expensive. Grid scale needs to be cheap and scalable. 50% efficient is perfectly fine.
That being said, who knows if this will actually happen. Silicon Valley companies announce grand projects all the time and then cancel them. There
How much power does the DC consume (Score:2)
I searched and came up empty. Google apparently isn't saying. So if the battery can provide 300MW, but the DC consumes 2GW, I see a shortfall.
Re: How much power does the DC consume (Score:2)
This battery is not there to maintain renewable 24x7, but to raise the capacity factor of the mix while reducing curltainment. The rest will be natural gas.
Re: (Score:2)
So traditional tech greenwashing. 300MW is not very much if the DC is 2GW, and really based on the footprint I saw in some articles, I think it could be more than 2GW. So maybe 15%.
three times as cheap (Score:2)
Am I the only one that find "times as cheap" annoying? I really want it to be 1/3 the cost. Meh.
I'm also curious how many cycles it's good for when compared to other battery tech.
Re: (Score:2)
Even "three times cheaper" would sound better but I agree with "1/3 the cost". We're gonna have to flood AI with more word patterns that we like. Saying "times as cheap" literally had to stop and say, huh, what a weird way to convey that information.
Power from rust? (Score:2)
They REALLY need to come to the Pacific Northwest...
Meanwhile (Score:3)
Sodium ion batteries are entering the market, why isn't Google using those? Also:
[1]https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com]
[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260218031603.htm
American Hybris again? (Score:1)
The biggest current plant is this one: [1]https://www.pv-magazine.com/20... [pv-magazine.com]
[1] https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/12/08/china-powers-up-nations-largest-standalone-battery-storage-project/
Re: (Score:2)
> The biggest current plant is this one: [1]https://www.pv-magazine.com/20... [pv-magazine.com]
That's a 500 MW battery with 2,000 MWh of capacity.
The Google storage will be a 300-MW battery-- slightly lower power-- but with 30 Giga watt hours of capacity-- fifteen times more energy stored than the Chinese one referenced.
[1] https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/12/08/china-powers-up-nations-largest-standalone-battery-storage-project/
What's with they hype? (Score:2)
Form Energy makes these "100 hour" claims, acting like it's an advantage...
> Delivers 100+ hour duration required to make the grid reliable year round, anywhere in the world, across all weather conditions. ... Allows utility operators to meet power demand with stored energy over time horizons previously not achievable.
But there's nothing preventing, say, lithium-ion energy storage from providing power for 100+ hours, it's just a matter of how much storage you have and how fast you use it. Is that "100 hours"
Re: What's with they hype? (Score:1)
100 hours is the general rule of thumb for making grid scale backup of renewables work properly. 100 hours for lithium ion is very expensive. Iron air is 10x cheaper. Itâ(TM)s also 1/2 as efficient, but itsâ(TM)s always cheaper to double your PV output with iron-air rather than try to make it work with lithium ion.
Less Efficient... (Score:2)
Also means more heat generated. In Minnesota, it seems it could be useful. Maybe put it under the building, or perhaps under lawns and roads.