How Nickel-Zinc Is Powering the Future of Data Centers
Data centers face the challenge of balancing industry demands—telecom, e-commerce, AI, and more—with rising sustainability expectations. As critical infrastructure, even seconds of downtime can mean lost data and revenue, making reliable UPS backup systems essential.
For many decades, lead-acid batteries remained at the core of backup power, providing the reliability and power required for an always-on world, at an accessible price point. The absence of shipping restrictions, and ability to provide back-up power, additionally ensured this chemistry’s stake in the market. Though, despite its legacy of consistency, the low-energy density, space requirements, and shorter lifespan of lead-acid left an opening for a more compact and long-lasting solution.
Lithium-ion chemistry, commonly used in consumer products, quickly gained popularity as a UPS solution due to its high-energy density and long lifespan. Able to provide the same power at a much smaller size and weight than lead-acid, lithium-ion remains a strong contender and stalwart choice in many data centers. However, safety remains a major concern with this chemistry, as demonstrated by incidents across several industries. Any number of factors, including high temperature or cell failure, can lead to thermal runaway and the output of flammable, toxic gases. This, in addition to the challenging extraction process of a limited lithium supply, provided an opportunity for alternative chemistry. In the last decade, nickel-zinc (NiZn) has challenged traditional solutions as a highly power-dense technology that meets the reliability demands of a data center, while touting many safety, cost, and sustainability benefits.
Higher Power, Smaller Footprint
Nickel-zinc delivers up to three times the power density of legacy chemistries, at half the footprint and one-third of the weight. Every square foot in a data center is valuable, and as power demands continue to increase, packing more into a smaller space translates to better performance with significant cost savings. The industry-leading footprint of NiZn ultimately allows data centers to allocate more space to revenue-generating equipment.
Nickel-Zinc: High Power Density Backup Power for Data Centers
Read PostSafety and Reliability at a Lower TCO
NiZn chemistry offers exceptional operational flexibility, withstanding a broader temperature range than lead-acid or lithium-ion – without the risk of thermal runaway at the cell level. This inherently safe, non-toxic chemistry reduces the need for intensive cooling, lowering operational costs while offering critical peace of mind for data center operators.
Nickel-zinc batteries deliver reliable performance without compromising safety. Unlike lithium-based chemistries – which may require system shutdowns via battery management systems (BMS) to prevent thermal events – NiZn systems remain operational even when individual cells become weak or depleted, ensuring uninterrupted performance and minimal downtime.
Thanks to their stable chemistry, NiZn batteries don’t force a tradeoff between reliability and safety. Even in the event of a cooling system failure, they continue to operate safely and are warrantied for their full-service life. They’re also warrantied to perform reliably during occasional temperature excursions up to 50°C, providing added assurance in high-demand environments.
Fewer replacements, less downtime, and a safer solution – nickel-zinc is a chemistry data centers can count on, year after year.
Sustainability & Low Carbon: A Chemistry That Cares
In addition to the safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness that data centers require from their UPS backup system, sustainability is an increasing priority for many organizations. According to the 2025 Data Center Energy Storage Industry Insights Report, 87% of respondents consider sustainability a priority in their power system buying decisions, up from 81% in 2024. Moreover, 72% indicated that their organization’s sustainability efforts have resulted in cost reductions, nearly a 10% increase from last year.
ZincFive’s nickel-zinc (NiZn) technology offers a sustainable, recyclable backup power solution for data centers with a significantly lower climate impact than lead-acid and lithium, as validated by third-party analysis. With an operating life up to 3x longer than lead-acid batteries, NiZn reduces waste and replacement frequency. Plus, NiZn’s lifetime greenhouse gas emissions are 25-50% lower than lead-acid or lithium-ion alternatives, making it a safer, more environmentally responsible choice. Nickel-zinc solutions use common, highly available, conflict-free materials which are also highly recyclable. In fact, nickel and zinc are four to five times more abundant in the Earth’s crust than lithium and lead respectively, making NiZn a safer, more sustainable, and resource-efficient energy storage choice.
AI’s impact on data center power requirements
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Perhaps the greatest demand of the moment, though, is the rapid adoption of AI. In the new normal, an AI-powered search requires at least ten times the energy of a traditional web search, meaning there is a large increase in the overall power demand required to support AI properly. Another growing challenge is the frequent, rapid power spikes, up to millions per month, that stem from GPU clusters operating at peak capacity. These pulses require a high-density, fast-discharging and re-charging chemistry to mitigate and reduce impacts on the grid. Despite its overall reliability, this is where lead-acid becomes less effective, as the chemistry does not perform well in high cycle environments. Lithium on the other hand responds well to typical battery cycling but struggles to maintain that advantage under these high-power peak load spikes. Of the three solutions, nickel-zinc chemistry clearly demonstrates the most effective load management for rapid pulsing present in AI load profiling. With its high-power density and rapid discharge capabilities, NiZn solutions can provide high bursts of power with near instantaneous response time.
A Lasting Future with Nickel-Zinc
While legacy battery chemistries remain competitive in UPS backup systems, nickel-zinc—proven with millions of operating hours across multiple industries—has emerged as a strong, viable solution in the rapidly evolving data center landscape. In short, nickel-zinc batteries offer a long life, reliable performance, and low maintenance while delivering higher power density in a smaller footprint. Capable of managing the peak loads of today’s automated world, NiZn batteries reduce footprint, ensure safety, support corporate sustainability goals, and lower the total cost of ownership—all without compromise.
Previously published by Data Center Dynamics
