Batteries and Cooling Combine for Data Center Sustainability

Data Center Solutions
Nickel-Zinc Batteries

November 21, 2022

ZincFive nickel-zinc monobloc batteries inside our BC Series UPS Battery Cabinet

For data center operators, the challenge of mitigating high temperatures is all too familiar. Critical electronic and electrical components, such as servers and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, generate high amounts of heat, raising the temperature of the rooms they’re housed in. Unfortunately, these high temperatures can result in shortened equipment lifespan, safety issues, and voided product warranties.

Recommended operating temperatures for data center server rooms range from 60 and 82°F (16 to 28°C), with the optimal temperatures for newer servers near the high end of this range. In contrast, lead-acid batteries require a battery temperature of approximately 77°F (25°C), with no potential for reduced cooling levels through higher operating temperatures.

This limitation has become particularly challenging, as the frequency and severity of high temperature weather events has been increasing due to climate change. High temperatures can even result in outages, which can directly cripple various critical operations that rely on the data these facilities manage. As a result, data centers dedicate large amounts of their operating budgets towards facility cooling, and on average, 40% of a data center’s energy consumption goes into powering its cooling and ventilation systems.

Strategies taken by data centers to keep temperatures down include the optimization of cool airflow and the use of liquid cooling. Some data centers operate in low temperature, mountainous regions — such as the Wyoming Hyperscale White Box Aspen Mountain project. The geography of such a data center lends itself to cost effective cooling techniques but is not a universally available solution.

Battery chemistries that allow for higher operating temperatures offer reduced cooling needs, resulting in energy savings. In many cases, the UPS is rated to operate at up to 113°F (45°C), but the battery operating temperature limits the ability to increase temperature and reduce cooling costs in that space. Fortunately, some alternative battery chemistries for UPS systems can tolerate higher temperatures, thus providing an opportunity to reduce cooling costs and improve Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and sustainability.

While traditional lead-acid battery solutions often limit temperatures to 77°F (25°C), alternative battery chemistries such as lithium-based and nickel-zinc have a higher ambient operating temperature range – and longer lifespans as well. Modern lithium-based batteries can operate up to 82-86°F (28-30°C). Nickel-zinc batteries offer the highest operating temperatures of popular battery chemistries in the data center market today, with a maximum limit of 95°F (35°C) for regular operation. Some nickel-zinc batteries’ warranty terms even allow for temperature excursions up to 122°F (50°C) for up to 5% of their operating life. This allowance for excursions to high temperatures assures owners that the battery warranty remains valid in the case of a cooling system breakdown and a temporary increase in ambient temperature.

These alternative batteries provide data center operators with the opportunity for increased operating temperature and cooling cost reductions without impacting the UPS. In particular, the higher operating temperature batteries such as nickel-zinc are often the safest, with no risk of thermal runaway. They also can offer additional benefits in terms of reliability and total cost of ownership.

The strategy of operating at higher temperatures with alternative battery powered UPS systems is most effective in prefabricated modular data center systems (PMDCs). In this design approach, prefabricated units are assembled together and outfitted with preselected, preconfigured equipment. A recent survey of 228 data center executives found that over half had already deployed PMDCs, while 99% shared that they have plans to use modular data center designs in the coming years.

As part of the increased use of PMDCs, UPS and battery systems are being positioned in containerized systems outside of the main data center facility. These modular designs pose an opportunity to create climate specific rooms for the UPS and battery systems themselves. By utilizing alternative batteries, these rooms can operate at higher temperatures and offer the combined benefits of lower CapEx for lower capacity cooling systems, and reduced OpEx over the life of the system. As high temperature events increase in frequency due to climate change, investing in battery systems that can withstand harsher environments in 10-15 years is a distinct advantage for facilities being built today.

Temperature flexibility in the battery and UPS space of data centers is an emerging strategy that has become possible thanks to the availability of alternative battery technologies. As these strategies are adopted, data centers can reduce cooling system investments, save on cooling costs over the system’s lifetime, and improve the PUE, sustainability, reliability and safety of their operations.

This post originally appeared in Data Center Frontier

Tags:

batteries,
cooling,
nickel-zinc,
sustainability

Uninterrupted Blog

The Powerful Benefits of Nickel-Zinc Batteries for Data Centers

Data Center Solutions
Nickel-Zinc Batteries

October 31, 2022

BC UPS Battery Cabinet with door open showcasing nickel-zinc batteries which are safe, powerful, reliable and sustainable

Data centers contain all the information on which internet activities rely, forming the bedrock supporting our increasingly connected world. As a result, any data center power outage – no matter how short – can have a catastrophic impact on operations around the globe. That’s why reliable backup power matters so much.

But while data center operators need to meet this challenge of reliability, it’s far from the only factor they must consider. Data centers are also under pressure to manage costs, meet sustainability goals, and reduce space – especially as facilities increasingly move to urban environments.

Fortunately, there’s a way to address all these challenges at once. Switching out lead-acid and lithium-ion backup batteries for nickel-zinc batteries increases reliability, safety, and sustainability while simultaneously lowering costs and space requirements.

Nickel-zinc batteries’ crucial role in data center reliability

Since even a few seconds of data center downtime can disrupt operations around the world, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems are essential to maintain uptime during a power outage.

Unfortunately, the very system meant to prevent an outage too often causes one; accounting for 37 percent of data center outages, on-site power failure is still the most common cause of significant data center outages. The majority of these on-site outages (53 percent) are caused by UPS failure, and often cost over $100,000 to repair.

Thus, UPS systems must contain backup batteries that perform reliably under any circumstances. UPS batteries must perform in paralleled strings to provide adequate power and run time to the UPS in the event of an outage. If any single cell in one of these batteries fails, the battery string does not operate, making the data center’s UPS unable to supply enough power and/or run time when an outage occurs.

However, cells in nickel-zinc batteries remain conductive even if weakened or depleted. This allows the battery string to continue operating and makes what would otherwise be an emergency into a simple note for replacement at the next planned maintenance cycle – no added maintenance costs or operational impact.

In the meantime, the data center’s UPS can still provide adequate power and run time to the data center if an outage occurs. This characteristic makes nickel-zinc batteries a strong option on the market for maintaining uptime and preventing costly outages.

Also, battery reliability can only last as long as the battery itself. With a 10-15 year operating life, nickel-zinc batteries have at least twice the lifespan of lead-acid batteries and one similar to lithium batteries. For example, ZincFive’s nickel-zinc batteries are designed to have a lifespan of 15 years and come with a ten-year warranty.

Nickel-zinc: More space, more profits

In addition to being more reliable, nickel-zinc batteries are also more power-dense than either lithium or lead batteries. Over a short time frame, they can discharge over twice the power that leading lithium-ion batteries would provide.

This makes them the ideal option for a data center UPS, whose goal is to keep the entire data center running temporarily until utility power returns or backup generators take on the power load.

Because of the power density of nickel-zinc batteries, fewer battery cabinets are required to support large UPS solutions. A mere four ZincFive battery cabinets provide an equivalent runtime at a megawatt of UPS as five lithium-ion cabinets or six lead-acid cabinets.

This frees up room in the data center for more revenue-generating hardware such as servers and storage, increasing the center’s profits as well as its reliability. In addition, the spacing requirements required by the NFPA for other chemistries is not required for chemistries that are inherently non-flammable like nickel-zinc.

Nickel-zinc helps sustainability & ESG goals

Organizations are under pressure – and are increasing pressure on their data centers – to report and reduce their impact on the environment. Boundless Impact Research and Analytics carried out a Climate Impact Profile comparing the environmental impact of different backup battery chemistries, providing excellent information for data centers and their customers as they report Scope 3 emissions.

This profile revealed nickel-zinc batteries’ significantly lower impact on the environment across all six metrics of a battery life cycle analysis: carbon return on purchase (CROP), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon payback time (CPT), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), water footprint, and energy footprint.

From the beginning of their lifecycle, nickel and zinc production are less harmful than lithium and lead production. They are respectively four and five times more abundant in the earth’s crust, and don’t require as environmentally harmful a mining process.

Nickel-zinc batteries’ life cycle GHG emissions are four times lower than lead-acid batteries’, and six times lower than lithium-ion batteries’. Their carbon payback time – the time required for emissions savings from the product’s use to offset the GHG from its production – is a mere 25 percent of lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries’ payback time.

In addition, both lead and lithium batteries use VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) in their production. These cause both short and long-term health problems, in addition to those caused by accidental lead exposure. In contrast, nickel-zinc batteries contain no VOC’s or other toxic elements. They can be used and recycled without dangerous exposure.

The Climate Impact Profile also reveals that over their lifetime, nickel-zinc batteries use 96 percent less water than lithium batteries and about 22-33 percent less energy than lithium and lead-acid batteries.

Put together, these environmentally friendly characteristics give nickel-zinc batteries the highest score for sustainability: 9.4 out of 10. That’s why sustainable data center Wyoming Hyperscale White Box chose ZincFive’s nickel-zinc batteries for its UPS needs. In addition, it’s worth noting that modular data centers are also good for the environment.

Safer data centers with nickel-zinc

In terms of safety, nickel-zinc technology has clear advantages over lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. Unlike nickel-zinc, both of the latter include harmful VOC’s in their production and contain toxic chemicals that make handling and recycling them difficult.

Nickel-zinc batteries are non-toxic, nonflammable, and fail-safe. They do not exhibit thermal runaway, as proven through testing ZincFive’s batteries using the Underwriters Laboratories UL 9540A test method, and can withstand higher temperatures than lithium-ion. This makes them easier and safer to handle and ship, as well as guaranteeing more reliable performance.

ZincFive battery cabinets: An easy drop-in replacement

While nickel-zinc batteries’ characteristics give data centers more than enough reason to make the switch from lead-acid, one challenge often stands in the way – but with ZincFive’s BC Series UPS Battery Cabinets, it doesn’t have to.

The challenge comes from the large installed base of UPS systems designed to charge only lead-acid batteries. Since every battery chemistry has a different charge profile, getting most alternative battery types to charge in those UPS systems requires a costly and time-consuming reengineering process.

However, ZincFive’s battery cabinets negate this obstacle; it is the first BESS that allows nickel-zinc batteries to perform in an existing UPS system without the time and expense of additional modifications.

The battery cabinet’s intelligent charging system utilizes the existing lead-acid charging profile to fully charge the nickel-zinc battery, giving them backwards/forwards compatibility with systems originally designed for lead-acid solutions. This drop-in replacement allows data centers to easily harness the benefits of ZincFive’s nickel-zinc batteries.

‘The Power of Good Chemistry’: A reliable, sustainable, safe UPS energy storage system

When lithium-ion entered the data center market, its performance triggered a migration away from its lead-acid counterparts.

But as lithium-ion’s safety, reliability, and sustainability issues surface, nickel-zinc chemistry has proven ideal to solve those concerns while delivering an even smaller footprint. Nickel-zinc battery-powered technology offers high performance, market success, and many proven improvements on previous backup technologies.

When it comes to your relationship with the batteries in your facility, never underestimate ‘The Power of Good Chemistry.’

This post originally appeared in Data Center Dynamics.

Tags:

high power density,
reliability,
safety,
sustainability

Uninterrupted Blog

5 Benefits of ZincFive Nickel-Zinc Batteries

Nickel-Zinc Batteries

September 7, 2022

ZincFive nickel-zinc monobloc & cyclinderical batteries that are safe, powerful, reliable and sustainable

Our electrified world demands safe, sustainable battery storage to maintain mission-critical applications like data centers and aviation. Zinc battery chemistry is a game changer for the energy space. Nickel-zinc (NiZn) batteries are the powerful, reliable, and safe choice for the future. In addition, as sustainability becomes a top priority across major markets and corporations, zinc battery technology emerges as the new “power player”, challenging its predecessors lead-acid and lithium-ion.

Here are five main reasons why we can safely make this strong statement:

Higher power and smaller footprint: Nickel-zinc batteries have twice the power density of lead-acid batteries. For the same level of backup power, nickel-zinc is about half the size and half the weight. This shrinks your energy storage footprint so your can plate more batteries wherever they are needed. High power density means rapid charge and discharge rates so you can power the data center, capture renewable energy, control peak loads, and rapidly charge EVs.
Reliability: Nickel-zinc batteries are reliable, they can take the heat, with their wide operating temperature range. Plus, an operating life up to three times longer than a lead-acid battery. Even a bad cell won’t stop a nickel-zinc battery from discharging, unlike lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries where a single cell failure, for example, can disable a storage system.
Safety: While lead exposure is a global health concern and lithium’s reactivity to air and water makes it a fire hazard, nickel-zinc batteries are safe, non-toxic and non-flammable (they don’t exhibit thermal runaway). They can reliably deliver more power faster, at high temperatures, and do it safely, year after year. This means less protection, lower costs, and, most importantly, peace of mind.
Sustainability: Nickel-zinc batteries are sustainable. They use common, highly available, conflict-free materials which are also highly recyclable. Nickel and zinc are four and five times more abundant in the earth’s crust, respectively, than lithium and lead. A third party expert analysis supports the sustainability claims. One of the leaders in innovation and delivery of nickel-zinc batteries, ZincFive, has partnered with an independent firm to conduct this analysis to demonstrate that nickel-zinc batteries have a significantly lower end-to-end climate impact than lead-acid and lithium batteries. As evident by the data in the report, nickel-zinc batteries ranked higher than lead-acid and lithium-ion chemistries in several criteria including avoided greenhouse gases (GHGs), carbon return on purchase and carbon payback time.
Scalable: Using a sustainable supply chain also makes a technology more scalable. More common elements = more scalability. This means the ability to scale up deployment of production factories in less time. The technology can be produced using manufacturing lines already producing similar chemistries.

To sum it up, with long life, reliable operation and low maintenance, nickel-zinc batteries can lower the total cost of ownership, safely reduce energy storage footprint, all while maintaining complete safety and helping the environment.

Learn more about how nickel-zinc batteries and power solution redefine immediate power for data centers, intelligent transportation systems, industrial engine starting, information technology, microgrid and EV charging, and more.

Tags:

high power density,
reliability,
safety,
small footprint,
sustainable

Uninterrupted Blog

Battery Energy Storage Trends for the Electrification of Everything

Battery Industry Trends
Nickel-Zinc Batteries

June 10, 2022

Data center technician working on nickel-zinc battery cabinet

As we closed out the first quarter of 2022, the energy storage industry continued to show stunning growth. When scrolling through the news, reading studies, and attending events, one can’t help but notice how critical battery energy storage is to a myriad of markets and industries. As innovative technologies emerge at a breakneck pace, they reveal key trends in both market priorities and the sector’s current and future direction.

Sustainability Under the Microscope: Solutions Themselves Are Put to the Test

Energy storage has been, and will continue to remain, a key tool for those seeking to decarbonize. In order to meet their sustainability targets, companies and municipalities are turning to cleantech such as renewable energy, electric vehicles (EVs), and green buildings. All of these rely on batteries and other energy storage technologies to ensure their effectiveness and reliability. One key trend in this push towards sustainability is that the energy storage solutions themselves, including batteries, are not immune to questions concerning their environmental footprints.

For example, emissions tied to the footprint of batteries used in an organization’s facilities can be included in the carbon accounting for their operations. In the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, energy storage systems fall under scope 1 and scope 3 emissions.

Accounting for Scope 1 emissions is often easier because much of the data is available within the organization. In contrast, Scope 3 emissions are more difficult to account for because they 3result from activities from assets neither owned nor controlled by the reporting entity itself. These emissions typically stem from the organization’s supply chain and their assets’ end of life process, which together contributes 65-95% of the company’s carbon emissions. So, if scope 3 emissions are excluded from carbon accounting, the majority of their emissions remain unreported.

Companies that report on their scope 3 emissions stand out from their competitors who lag behind in their disclosure, and can identify and act upon areas for improvement within their supply chain. Leaders in reporting and acting on scope 3 emissions are also better equipped to manage existing and potential regulations.

The demand is growing more urgent for disclosure of scope 3 emissions tied to energy storage systems. For batteries, this disclosure includes data on their GHG, energy, water, and volatile organic compound footprints. Fortunately, up-to-date research now helps users make quantitative comparisons across battery chemistries. In energy-heavy industries such as data centers, where facilities race to showcase their sustainability, this offers a key opportunity to stand out by reducing scope 3 emissions through battery choices.

Energy storage has clearly established its role in the clean energy transition, and the importance of sustainability as a whole is hardly news. But the increase in attention to the environmental footprint of these energy storage technologies is fascinating. Companies and municipalities are no longer able to rely on surface level decisions as they set and meet their climate targets. As the role of storage in decarbonization strategies grows, so does the importance of choosing the most sustainable batteries.

Alternative Battery Chemistries Challenge Incumbents

Another reason why battery sustainability has become such a hot topic is the increasing number of different battery options. Gone are the days where a single battery chemistry could consider their foothold on an industry secure. Now, both established and new companies fiercely compete to capitalize on alternative battery technologies’ advantages over the incumbents.

For instance, many data centers once considered lead-acid batteries the standard for meeting their uninterruptible power supply (UPS) needs. Then, lithium-ion batteries’ market entrance triggered a migration as data center operators realized the advantages of lithium’s longer life and lower maintenance needs. Following this disruption, the market became more open to additional chemistries, such as nickel-zinc (NiZn), that provide even more advantages – for example, greater safety, more reliability, and a higher power density that delivers a smaller footprint in a real-estate focused industry.

Of course, change isn’t quick, and many of these alternative chemistries have existed for decades. Incumbent technologies have the advantage of existing infrastructure built with these batteries in mind. Even if a company were to consider swapping out a lead-acid battery for lithium-ion, they would have to address not only the batteries themselves but also the connected systems, which may not be compatible with the replacements.

Fortunately, technological advancements address this obstacle by enabling drop-in replacements for incumbents. UPS solutions include advanced battery cabinets that offer backwards and forwards compatibility with existing UPS infrastructure. With this barrier to battery replacement removed, more data centers can adopt alternative battery chemistries without overhauling their backup power infrastructure.

Alternative battery chemistries are challenging incumbents on a variety of characteristics: safety, sustainability, cost, abuse tolerance, space requirements, and more. As new technologies are tailored to excel in these areas, the energy storage industry grows increasingly competitive – making the customer the ultimate winner.

A Hybrid Approach: Microgrids are Increasingly Incorporating Multiple Battery Chemistries

With the commercialization of alternative batteries, markets are realizing that no single battery chemistry exists that is perfect for every use case. As the concept of a “one size fits all” energy storage solution is retired, organizations can creatively incorporate multiple batteries to best meet their needs. Developers have begun to diversify the types of batteries being used in their operations, taking advantage of each chemistry’s unique strengths.

A key distinguishing factor between different batteries is whether they offer high power density or energy density. If a battery has a high power density, it can release large amounts of energy for a short period of time (also known as a high discharge rate). In contrast, a battery with high energy density may have a moderate to low discharge rate, but can supply this amount of energy for a prolonged period of time.

These separate battery types, with differing power and energy densities, can be used together for the same application in a complementary hybrid approach. Microgrids are being developed that have the option of pulling power from a power battery or energy battery, depending on the circumstance. Such an approach is particularly useful for peak power shaving and EV charging systems.

Peak power shaving is the use of battery storage to supply power to a microgrid when power demand and its ensuing costs are highest. This strategy helps operations save money while maintaining disruption-free microgrid functionality. As the transportation economy electrifies, it increases power supply stress on the grid, which in turn increases the grid’s reliance on battery energy storage. While high energy-density batteries (such as lithium-ion) are well adapted to support long duration power demand, they often are not powerful enough to meet short-term peak power demand. At these times, high-power density batteries like NiZn can respond on demand to support those types of short-term microgrid power requirements.

Another example is the power battery use case for EV charging in environments with fluctuating demand. Most battery-powered EV charging stations can support simultaneous demand for only a few level 2 charge sessions, which are slower than level 3. The increase in demand for high power level 3 charging, and simultaneous level 3 charging of multiple EVs, is driving the need for high power batteries. By incorporating multiple battery chemistry options into a single charging station, the system can adjust between providing longer duration, lower power charging or faster, higher power charging based on the needs of the situation.

The varying demands of an electrified economy now require operations to be smart about the batteries they utilize, identifying the best resources based on specific situations. These hybrid approaches show how different battery chemistries don’t always have to compete; instead, they can complement each other and provide a more effective solution.

The Future of Energy Storage

These interconnected trends will intensify. The desire for more sustainable batteries has helped spark the exploration of new chemistries that allow developers and users to take hybrid approaches for their operations. These trends stand true across multiple industries as energy storage use becomes even more widespread. As new technologies emerge and compete, these trends can be expected to bolster the sustainability, efficiency, and value of the energy storage industry.

This post originally appeared in PV Magazine.

Author

Tod Higinbotham

CEO, ZincFive

Tod has a strong track record of successfully growing advanced materials companies in the energy storage, semiconductor, and solar markets. He served as Executive VP/GM for ATMI and led the rapid growth of the company, which sold more than $1 billion. Tod was an executive member of the leadership team at Advanced Silicon Materials, a world leader in high-purity silicon materials, the business that was sold to REC to form their solar materials business. He was formerly the CEO of PowerGenix, the company that pioneered the novel nickel-zinc battery technology that has become the core of ZincFive’s solution portfolio.

Tags:

batteries,
data centers,
immediate power,
reliability,
Scope 3 emissions,
uninterruptible power supply

Webinars

Nickel-Zinc Introduction

This webinar introduces ZincFive’s Nickel-Zinc battery chemistry. The Webinar will cover what makes ZincFive unique and discuss the reliable, safe, powerful, and green advantages of Nickel-Zinc over Lithium and Lead-Acid batteries.

Length
30 minutes with Q/A

Speakers
Tracy Johnson
Dan Lambert

ZincFive webinar on nickel-zinc batteries

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Webinars

Codes & Standards Impacting Energy Storage Systems

ZincFive is offering a 30-minute webinar detailing information regarding NFPA 855 and how the various UL Standards will impact the selection, sizing and placement of electrochemical energy storage systems. Specifically covering UL 1778, UL 9540 and the UL 9540A Test methodology and how they relate to NFPA 855.

Length
30 minutes with Q/A

Speakers
Dan Lambert – Product Manager, Data Center Solutions

ZincFive webinar on codes and standard for energy storage solutions

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Webinars

Battery Technology Climate Impact and Sustainability

ZincFive is offering a 30-minute webinar featuring ZincFive’s Sr. VP, Steve Jennings, and Boundless Research Analyst Andreas van Giezen, who present Boundless’ independent analysis of the Climate Impact Profile for nickel-zinc, lead-acid, lithium-ion and sodium sulphur batteries. The life cycle assessment details key parameters such as greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint, energy footprint and carbon payback of these battery chemistries. Join this deep dive into battery sustainability factors to determine the best choices for your organization.

Length
30 minutes with Q/A

Speakers
Steve Jennings – ZincFive
Andreas van Giezen – Boundless Research Analyst

ZincFive webinare on nickel-zinc climate impact report

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Uninterrupted Blog

How IEEE’s Energy Storage Documents Help Users Choose the Best Battery

Data Center Solutions
Nickel-Zinc Batteries

November 22, 2021

Energy storage technology has come a long way since the days of watermills and the first rechargeable battery. We now have a wide range of battery technologies to choose from, including lithium-ion, sodium-beta, lead-acid, nickel-zinc and others.

As the number of options on the market continues to grow, choosing the storage technology that is best suited for your particular application has major impacts on cost, energy efficiency and safety. The modern grid, data centers and smart devices all share the need for reliable energy storage solutions, and so also share the need for guidance on which technology is the best fit.

That’s why the Energy Storage and Stationary Battery (ESSB) Committee, which is part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power and Energy Society (PES), provides the industry with the most comprehensive guides, recommended practices, and standards for the major categories of stationary energy storage technology. IEEE’s 1679 document family helps users, integrators and servicing organizations compare traditional stationary battery technologies with newer, advanced technologies, helping to guide the user in the selection of the best battery type for their needs.

The Parent Document for Energy Storage Comparisons: IEEE 1679-2020

Originally published in 2010 and updated in 2020, IEEE 1679-2020: Recommended Practice for the Characterization and Evaluation of Energy Storage Technologies in Stationary Applications provides a foundation to objectively evaluate and compare different available energy storage technologies. These publications lead battery storage buyers through data and decisions to help them understand key principles and make prudent decisions according to the performance envelope of an energy storage product. Such data includes, but is not limited to:

Evaluation techniques
Description and characterization of the technologies
Qualification testing
Applications

IEEE 1679-2020 is an overarching “parent” document: it is a Recommended Practice document and must be used to properly utilize the following “child” documents, each of which provides information and guidance for a specific energy storage technology or family of technologies.

IEEE 1679’s Children

Each of the IEEE 1679 child documents are Guide documents. They are frameworks for developers and manufacturers to describe their products to provide standardized, objective criteria for buyers. The four child documents include two published guides, one each for lithium and sodium-beta battery technologies in stationary applications. Two other energy storage technologies, flow and alkaline batteries, have draft guides under development.

Each guide helps buyers understand and compare a storage technology by including the technology’s:

Intended applications
Aging mechanisms and failure modes
Testing for abuse tolerance and fault tolerance

Evaluation techniques:

Application considerations
Safety
Life-cycle costs

Each guide also includes its subject’s unique needs and strengths. For example, the sodium-beta battery guide addresses those batteries’ high-temperature design and need for specific control systems. The flow battery guide explains flow batteries’ unusual ability to grow energy storage capacity without affecting the power rating.

Where do ZincFive’s nickel-zinc batteries fit in? Our product type is covered in the alkaline battery draft, which addresses zinc-based and alkaline electrochemistries other than nickel-cadmium (which the IEEE has already documented). This guide includes nickel-iron, nickel-zinc, nickel-metal hydride, and zinc-manganese technologies. Guidance on nickel-zinc batteries can prove especially useful for those in the data center, intelligent transportation system and other standby uninterruptible power supply industries.

Is the Family Expecting an Addition? Several, hopefully!

Currently, all energy storage technologies documented in the IEEE 1679 family are electrochemical. As other energy storage products (e.g. supercapacitors, flywheels, “gravity”-based devices besides pumped hydro, and other battery technologies) are commercialized and begin to be deployed in higher numbers, we can look forward to potential child documents for them as well.

For now, if you’re considering an energy storage purchase for stationary applications, IEEE 1679-2020 and its children are an invaluable tool to help you effectively evaluate which technology is the best choice for you.

Author

Dan Lambert

Senior Product Manager, ZincFive

Dan has over 40 years of commercial and industrial electrical experience and has worked with AC and DC power systems, with a primary focus on mission-critical power systems. Working with stationary battery systems since 1985, Dan has worked with many battery chemistries and has contributed to large scale energy storage analysis projects, as well as testing other storage systems. Dan is currently a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society serving as the chairperson for the IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery Committee’s IEEE 1679.4 Alkaline Chemistries Working Group and is a member of the Battcon conference Technical Committee.

Tags:

batteries,
data centers,
high power density,
IEEE,
immediate power,
reliability,
uninterruptible power supply

Uninterrupted Blog

Zinc Technology Advances Across Energy Storage Markets – And Not Just Our Own

Data Center Solutions
Nickel-Zinc Batteries

October 6, 2021

ZincFive nickel-zinc cyclinderical batteries that are safe, powerful, reliable and sustainable

It’s an exciting time to be in the energy storage business!

In a prior blog post, A New Initiative Celebrates Performance, Safety and Sustainability of Zinc Batteries, we talked about our membership in the Zinc Battery Initiative (ZBI), an initiative created by the International Zinc Association to educate about the advantages and uses of rechargeable zinc batteries across a variety of applications.

Today we want to celebrate some good news from another ZBI company, Eos Energy Enterprises. Eos recently announced a $100 million investment to support its strategic growth initiatives. That’s quite a show of support!

Eos Znyth® technology is an excellent choice for long duration (3-12 hour) energy storage. Long-duration batteries can smooth out the variability of renewable energy by providing reliable power to entities throughout the electricity ecosystem: from utilities to industrial and commercial sites. Their zinc technology helps to lower the levelized cost of storage and increase the amount of renewable energy that electric grids and power uses can access around the clock.

Zinc’s strategic advantages for energy storage

Eos is not the only player in the long-duration energy storage market. What’s behind their momentum and this big new investment? It’s the strategic advantages that zinc brings to Eos batteries – and to ZincFive’s nickel-zinc battery solutions designed for data centers, intelligent transportation and more.

Safety

With energy storage becoming more widely used and energy dense, safety of personnel and facilities is a top concern. Eos technology uses aqueous technology that is less flammable than lithium-ion chemistries, reducing the risks to store and provide power in hot, dense places. Being nonflammable and free of thermal runaway risk, they do not require fire suppression systems, and there are lower restrictions for ship and installation.

NiZn technology is inherently safer than lithium-ion and lead-acid in applications such as data centers. NiZn batteries do not exhibit thermal runaway, as proven through testing at the cell level using the Underwriters Laboratories UL 9540A test method^[1]. These batteries are also non-flammable and exhibit a reduced volume of out-gassing in abusive situations.

Efficiency

Since the Eos product is less complex than other long-duration systems, it is inherently more efficient. It is fast to install, easy to maintain, and cost-effective to run across a wide temperature range. In addition, it is designed for 100% depth of discharge, allowing use of the full rating of the system.

ZincFive’s NiZn batteries improve efficiency in similar ways. To start, ZincFive NiZn batteries have the highest operating temperature of available data center technologies which reduces the need for cooling equipment and power. In addition, ZincFive’s NiZn batteries have twice the power density of lead-acid batteries, and so can reduce battery footprint and weight by as much as 50%. These and other advantages reduce up-front and ongoing costs associated with energy storage.

“These are the start of a long list of reasons why zinc technology is very competitive in today’s energy storage markets.”

Sustainability

Sustainability is becoming a requirement across many large industries, so the growth of energy storage must reflect this priority. ZincFive’s NiZn chemistry is easier on the environment than the alternatives for data centers. In a recent Climate Impact Report performed by Boundless Impact Research & Analysis, ZincFive’s NiZn batteries ranked higher than lead-acid and lithium-ion chemistries in several criteria including avoided greenhouse gases (GHGs), carbon return on purchase and carbon payback time.

Eos technology is a much more eco-friendly option than lithium-ion systems. No toxic materials are used in manufacture, and all components are fully recyclable. According to Eos, the residual value from recycling covers all end-of-life costs, an important economic consideration for some public utilities.

Scalability

Interestingly, using a sustainable supply chain also makes a technology more scalable. As Eos puts it, “Less precious materials = more scalability.” Its systems use off-the shelf components with no precious or conflict materials. As a result, Eos claims its manufacturing process can scale up deployment of a gigawatt-scale factory in just six to nine months.

ZincFive’s NiZn battery technology is also based on highly available materials, so it avoids concerns around finding reliable, conflict-free sources. The technology can be produced using manufacturing lines already producing similar chemistries. The sky’s the limit for ZincFive NiZn.

These are the start of a long list of reasons why zinc technology is very competitive in today’s energy storage markets. As you can see in Eos and ZincFive, zinc is often the best battery choice for the criteria that matters most. Now there’s an exciting business to be in!

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batteries,
design,
high power density,
reliability,
uninterruptible power supply

Uninterrupted Blog

A New Initiative Celebrates Performance, Safety and Sustainability of Zinc Batteries

Nickel-Zinc Batteries

April 28, 2021

It’s not often an industry throws a party, but the Zinc Battery Initiative (ZBI) sure feels like one to us.

The fun started last year when the International Zinc Association formed ZBI to promote rechargeable zinc batteries’ remarkable story and promote their advantages across many applications. While each participating member has its own proprietary technology, all share zinc as a common ingredient in delivering high-performance, safe, and environmentally sustainable batteries.

We’re excited to mix our NiZn chemistry in the festivities and spread the word about zinc.

Let’s take a spin through the three key topics organized in the ZBI website (zincbatteryinitiative.com):

Unrivaled Performance: Zinc batteries offer flexible designs with the broadest operating temperatures, highest power discharge in seconds to one hour, and long-duration storage.
Safest Battery Technology: Zinc batteries are non-flammable and offer a safer alternative to non-zinc battery chemistries.
Sustainable: Zinc batteries are non-toxic, recyclable, and made from abundant and inexpensive materials.

“Zinc batteries offer a wider operating temperature range, longer calendar life, and a lower cost per kilowatt hour than today’s leading batteries, including lithium. They can also support long-duration storage, are environmentally friendly and sustainable.” – ZBI

Unrivaled Performance

Batteries are essentially just so much dead weight if they can’t compete on performance. The Zinc Battery Initiative starts here, pointing out the superior energy and power density of the technology. Zinc batteries also provide maintenance-free operation over a long cycle life, do not sulfate as lead-acid ones do, and operate over a wider temperature range. That’s why zinc batteries are competitive in a wide range of demanding commercial and industrial applications.

The Initiative lists long-duration renewable energy storage as a promising market, such as scaling up the hundreds of megawatt hours that an electrical utility or large plant needs. For more common energy storage applications, nickel-zinc batteries already achieve the highest power density of mainstream rechargeable battery chemistries. In data center and transportation market uninterruptible power supply (UPS) applications, for example, our NiZn batteries have twice the power density of equivalent lead-acid batteries at one-half the weight.

That’s hardly a fair rivalry.

Safest Battery Technology

The second category the initiative touts is Zinc’s proven safety record. To begin with, Zinc batteries are not flammable and do not run the risk of thermal runaway or off-gassing. As a result, they do not require excessive thermal management or high capacity fire suppression systems, as lithium-ion energy storage systems do.

We’ve got the proof. Our NiZn batteries have been tested according to UL 9540A (UL’s Test Method for Evaluating Thermal Runaway Fire Propagation in Battery Energy Storage Systems) all the way down to the cell level, and do not exhibit thermal runaway. When putting battery backup into valuable compute racks in a data center or a transportation cabinet near the public, you want assurance that no accidental fire will put the public, your employees or equipment at risk.

Unlike lithium-ion products, Zinc batteries are non-toxic, and can be shipped, installed and maintained with no hazard worries or special requirements. These safety advantages can make Zinc batteries more affordable in many applications as well as safer.

Sustainable

As industries electrify and battery backup becomes widespread, sustainability has become one of the top criteria for global corporations. Zinc batteries check this box too, being made from abundant and inexpensive materials, and made available through well-established supply chains in every region of the world.

The ZBI’s website is clear on this advantage: “Zinc is the fourth-most used metal worldwide, behind iron, aluminum, and copper. Further, the world is naturally abundant in zinc, and resources are available to meet future demand for many generations. By contrast, lithium batteries depend on raw materials that are too scarce to enable the widespread and rapid transition that the realities of global warming demand.”

Consider the recent Climate Impact Profile on NiZn batteries issued by Boundless Impact Research and Analytics. Boundless analyzed the climate impact of the ZincFive NiZn battery technology, taking into account key performance indicators such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water footprint, energy footprint, and hazardous material requirements, scoring ZincFive’s NiZn batteries at 9.4 with 10, which represents the highest positive environmental impact score.

The report touches on another sustainability advantage: Zinc technologies are more recyclable too. According to the ZBI, “Zinc recovered from batteries can be recycled through well-established channels and, unlike lithium, reused in new batteries.”

With ZincFive’s NiZn technology, both nickel and zinc can be recycled while maintaining their physical and chemical properties, making NiZn one of the most recyclable battery chemistries. In fact, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has defined a Green Technology Battery Backup System (GT-BBS) standard that utilizes NiZn battery-based backup systems as a green alternative to lead-acid battery backup systems.

See the zinc advantage at ZincFive

Well, the party has started, and you are invited. Learn more about the advantages of our Zinc battery technology by reading more of our articles and blog posts , or watch a webinar. Feel free to contact ZincFive today if you’d like to discuss your application. See you there!

Tags:

batteries,
high power density,
NFPA 855,
safety,
uninterruptible power supply