US startup pairs 300 MW solar panels with battery storage for continuous data center power

Ambrosia Energy has begun work on a battery factory near Austin, Texas, to supply its planned network of solar-powered plants for data centers.

The 150,000-square-foot facility is designed for 10 gigawatt-hours of battery production, with full output targeted within two to three years.

Co-founder and CEO Ben Longmier announced the project Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.

The startup is developing solar and battery systems to deliver continuous electricity at $100 per megawatt-hour, using daytime generation to power customers and store energy for use after sunset.

“That allows us to build about a 300 megawatt power plant per year out at our field sites,” Longmier said.

Solar and batteries target continuous power

Ambrosia emerged from stealth in June with a plan to build power plants serving data centers. Longmier and co-founder Sara Spangelo chose solar paired with batteries because they considered it the cheapest option and the fastest to deploy.

The pair previously founded satellite constellation startup Swarm, which they sold to SpaceX.

Their power plant design assigns solar generation two jobs during daylight hours: supplying the data center and charging batteries. Stored electricity then supports operations at night and during cloudy conditions.

The approach requires substantially more solar generating capacity than the continuous power supplied to the customer. Ambrosia is also beginning work on its first commercial power plant in West Texas later this year, according to Longmier.

That project pairs 300 megawatts of solar panels with 660 megawatt-hours of battery storage. The intended output is 30 megawatts of continuous power, with a target uptime of 99.3%.

Pilot passes 100 days of operation

Sections of Ambrosia’s first pilot-scale power plant have operated continuously for more than 100 days, Longmier said. The pilot is capable of generating 200 kilowatts of electricity around the clock.

The commercial project represents a substantial increase in scale from that demonstration, while retaining the same basic combination of solar generation and battery storage.

Longmier said Ambrosia can remain profitable at $100 per megawatt-hour despite the additional solar panels and batteries needed to maintain supply beyond daylight hours.

At that price, the company aims to compete with natural gas turbines, which many hyperscalers are planning to use to supply their data centers.

The cost claim remains the company’s assessment, alongside its stated targets for commercial output and uptime.

Simpler battery packs lower costs

The company buys battery cells and assembles its own packs rather than manufacturing the cells themselves.

“We buy existing cells and we make our own pack in-house, and it has the fewest parts by a factor of about 100 compared to any other competitor we’ve seen,” Longmier said.

“We’ve been able to get to about 1.3x the cost of the bare cell compared to about a 5- or 7x for most stationary storage systems,” he added.

To reach its pricing target, Ambrosia has focused on simplifying equipment, including solar mounts and battery packs.

Reducing component counts and manufacturing more equipment in a factory has helped lower costs compared with purchasing from outside suppliers, according to Longmier.

Ambrosia’s next challenge is to carry those manufacturing savings into commercial operation while meeting its targets for electricity costs and uptime.

Source: https://interestingengineering.com/energy/us-battery-factory-solar-data-centers