Form Energy invented a novel iron-air battery to store clean energy for much longer timeframes than conventional lithium-ion batteries can. The startup is still constructing its first commercial project, in Minnesota, but today revealed it has clinched a potentially game-changing follow-up in the same state to support a Google data center.
The utility Xcel Energy will install 300 megawatts of Form’s batteries in Pine Island, Minnesota. It’s a big battery installation for the Midwest, but developers have built several grid storage plants elsewhere with more megawatt capacity. What shoots this project into the energy-storage stratosphere is that it will dispatch energy for up to 100 hours straight — enough to pump clean energy through multiday weather patterns that would limit renewable production. That unique capability means the Pine Island Form plant, fully charged, will hold 30 gigawatt-hours of energy, an astonishing amount for the grid as we know it.
The deal is also notable in that it proves Form has found commercial traction even before its first installation for a utility customer is complete. That outcome was possible because Xcel has seen Form develop its technology for years, said Form CEO Mateo Jaramillo, who co-founded the firm in 2017.
“Xcel in particular has been with us through every step of the journey — when the chemistry was in a very small bucket, essentially, to complete deployed systems,” Jaramillo said. “They saw the challenging things that we worked through. They saw us solve hard problems. They saw us come out the other side.”
The arrangement also offers one of the clearest examples yet of how tech giants could power their data centers with clean energy without raising costs for regular customers, if those companies care to try.
Under the agreement, Google will pay Xcel to build 1.4 gigawatts of wind and 200 megawatts of solar. Those resources make cheap, clean power, but they can’t match a data center’s 24/7 operating profile. That’s where the Form batteries come in: They can charge up whenever renewable production exceeds momentary demand and then deliver on-demand power for more than four days.
For anyone still concerned about climate change, that’s an enticing vision at a time when the titans of AI seem happy to toss clean energy out the window. Amazon and Meta have readily endorsed major fossil-gas-plant construction to power their AI sites. Just this week, SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy, which has been an avid clean energy developer, teamed up with the Trump White House to propose the biggest fossil-gas power plant in the world to help fuel the AI computing build-out. Other companies have turned to less efficient, smaller-scale fossil-fueled generators to hack together enough power for their data center plans, as chronicled by analyst Michael Thomas.
Xcel, which provides electricity to nearly 4 million people across eight states, also took great care in its statement to describe the data center not as serving the general AI arms race, but as one that “will support core services — including Workspace, Search, YouTube and Maps — that people, communities and businesses use every day.”
The companies also took steps to protect Xcel’s other customers from price impacts to serve the data center: “Google will cover any new grid infrastructure costs associated with the project and has planned carefully with Xcel Energy to ensure electricity in the area remains reliable and affordable for all of Xcel Energy’s customers,” the utility noted.
Great Job Julian Spector & the Team @ Canary Media for sharing this story.
