Grid-scale energy storage company Energy Vault Holdings has announced a strategic partnership with data centre developer RackScale Data Centers (RSDC), with the aim of accelerating the delivery of 2GW of power to data centre sites.
The partners aim to begin construction at data centre sites in 2026.
The sites will use Energy Vault’s ‘B-Nest multi-storey structure” to house batteries for onsite energy storage at data centre sites. Energy Vault says the technology is capable of storing up to 1.6GWh of energy per acre, “more than 8X increase in installed site energy density over traditional ground-mounted battery energy storage system (BESS) installations.” It added that the “ultra-high energy density enables the B-Nest to provide each data centre with “full primary power for 10+ hours”.
Energy Vault said this meant that the result is “significant acceleration of data centre project development timelines enabled by rapid delivery of firm power, allowing RSDC to avoid issues created by the shortage of available grid power seen across the industry”.
The surge in demand for new data centre construction has led to increasingly long wait times for new facilities to access “firm grid power” from local utilities, Energy Vault said.
An Energy Vault statement added: “As utilities work to expand their generation fleets to meet the sudden surge in power demand, data centre interconnection wait times can now stretch up to five years or more – this challenge presents a severe bottleneck for data centre developers and is most acute in urban settings where data centre demand and utility grid congestion are at their highest.”
The partnership between Energy Vault and RSDC includes the planned deployment of 2GW / 20GWh of B-Nest infrastructure that will drive a “rapid portfolio build-out, with the ability to capture supplementary revenue through participation in demand response programmes with local utilities”.
Marco Terruzzin, chief commercial and product officer at Energy Vault, said: “With the rapid increase in power demand from the rise of the data centre sector, it is absolutely essential that renewable energy generation and storage become key points of focus to power the AI data centre boom. The safety characteristics, energy density, and economics of the B-Nest solution are ideally suited to meet the needs of the data center market, and we look forward to working with RSDC on the deployment of critical power infrastructure to support their ambitious growth plans.”
Trent D’Ambrosio, CEO of RackScale Data Centers, added: “Our partnership with Energy Vault is a powerful catalyst in our mission to develop cutting-edge data centres. The B-Nest system’s high energy density and advanced safety design are game-changers for our operations, enabling us to accelerate firm grid power interconnections and onsite generation to meet the needs of our data centre sites. We look forward to working closely with Energy Vault to achieve our shared vision of a sustainable energy future.”
Last month, it was announced that Energy Vault is to deploy a 57 MW/114 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Scurry County, Texas.
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