Lucia Tian

Stories

AI data centers push grid batteries past the 4-hour ceiling

As of September 2026: Leading Google's long-duration storage procurement

Grid batteries came with a four-hour ceiling. Now the companies with the fastest-growing electricity demand on Earth, the AI data-center operators, are buying batteries that discharge for 10 hours and, in one case, 100: Meta reserved up to 100 gigawatt-hours from Noon Energy, while Google contracted a 300-megawatt iron-air system in Minnesota and a zinc array in West Virginia.

Updated Sep 18

Notable Quotes

Many emerging LDES technologies do not rely on graphite and other critical minerals entangled in geopolitical tensions, which helps reduce supply chain vulnerability.

from AI data centers push grid batteries past the 4-hour ceiling · Updated Sep 18

At Google, we're committed to backing solutions that both serve our data center capacity needs and accelerate progress toward cleaner, more affordable energy systems.

from AI data centers push grid batteries past the 4-hour ceiling · Updated Sep 18

Even though right now we don't have clarity yet on how this will service a data center … we know that it will be a foundational building block of power generation for a data center presence in Utah. — Lucia Tian, to the Wall Street Journal

from Google signs record enhanced geothermal deal to power Utah data center · Updated Sep 7