Data Centers Are Finding a Surprising Way to Deploy Batteries
By pairing energy storage with natural gas, hyperscalers are able to get power faster and do so behind the meter.
The scramble to find enough power for artificial intelligence has data center operators looking for any solution. An unexpected one taking root pairs batteries — long seen as a key to adding more renewables — with fossil fuels.
BloombergNEF has tracked 4.9 gigawatts of energy storage announcements that are co-located with on-site fossil fuel generation at data centers. That’s about 32% of announced global on-site data center battery capacity. The sites include some of the largest AI data center complexes under development, such as Elon Musk’s Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, and the combo has become so popular that companies such as Caterpillar Inc. and GE Vernova Inc. have announced products or partnerships pairing energy storage with gas generation.