{"id":419,"date":"2025-10-11T08:01:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T08:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/?p=419"},"modified":"2025-10-11T08:01:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T08:01:16","slug":"why-big-tech-could-outpace-utilities-in-deploying-multi-day-storage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/why-big-tech-could-outpace-utilities-in-deploying-multi-day-storage\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Big Tech could outpace utilities in deploying multi-day storage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Electric utilities rarely act as the vanguard of new energy technologies\u2014it\u2019s often private industry who makes the first bet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This time, it\u2019s the hyperscalers and Big Tech who are set to leapfrog utilities as the first major customers for and early adopters of multi-day energy storage (MDS), which can provide dozens of hours of capacity. For data centers, which require 24\/7\/365 firm power, MDS could be an attractive offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cData centers are looking for as much energy and power as they can get, as quickly as possible,\u201d explained Aric Saunders, the executive vice president of commercialization at ultra-long-duration storage and carbon battery start-up Noon Energy. The company is developing batteries that utilize reversible solid oxide fuel cell technology to convert between electricity and stored chemical energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told pv magazine USA<\/strong> that speed to power <\/a>has become a critical component of data center development. But, many of the most common solutions have one thing in common, he said: backlogs in shipping or technology development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While long-duration storage and MDS are still in their (comparatively) early days vis-a-vis lithium-ion batteries, the technologies are scaling fast and are set to \u201cbecome a viable solution in terms of power, speed and costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had load growth for 20 years,\u201d Saunders said, adding that the current moment is a turning point. Coupled with increasing renewable penetration, the 4-8 hours of storage capacity provided by most lithium storage systems just \u201cisn\u2019t sufficient\u201d to create a satisfactory level of firm power for data centers without also needing diesel generators, which many companies are trying to move away from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sees MDS following a similar path to lithium, which evolved from a niche technology into a dominant industry force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily a new technology, but a new application of the technology,\u201d he said. While electric vehicles helped catapult lithium batteries to the spotlight, Saunders believes Big Tech may be the spark that sets off the long-duration boom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is that push to get us off the margins and more mainstream, but it won\u2019t be the final one,\u201d he said. While we\u2019re no longer in the earliest days of long-duration storage, Saunders expects the industry\u2019s growth to be \u201cexponential\u201d in the next few years once the tech reaches bankability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will always be early adopters and that\u2019s where hyperscalers are our best allies,\u201d Saunders added, noting that \u201cutilities will admit it themselves that they\u2019ll never be that first mover.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noon is focused more on not only continuing to derisk their tech, but making sure that their current customers, including hyperscalers, understand how it works and the value it can bring them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSolar or wind plus a long-duration battery? That\u2019s an onsite power plant,\u201d Saunders said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Electric utilities rarely act as the vanguard of new energy technologies\u2014it\u2019s often private industry who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}