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The spike in power demand from AI data centers over the past two years is not only driving up utility prices but also driving rapid, sustained growth in renewable power, especially solar. That’s despite the Trump administration's attempts to encourage more use of carbon-based fuels. This has largely been thanks to increased use of battery storage to overcome the intermittent electricity generation of wind and solar.

Last year, the U.S. installed a record 58-gigawatt-hours of battery storage, 30% higher than in 2024, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Much of that growth was led by packs using lithium-iron phosphate cells, a chemistry that’s been mastered by Chinese battery giants CATL and BYD. Its advantage has been both lower costs and reduced fire risks compared to the lithium-ion cells used in electric cars. The challenge with that chemistry, however, is that the U.S. lacks a soup-to-nuts supply chain to produce LFP cells domestically.

Mateo Jaramillo has a different solution, and it’s starting to catch on. A former Tesla battery engineer who’d worked on packs for electric cars and residential solar systems, Jaramillo created Form Energy in 2017 to develop a battery that could store power for extended periods using an abundant, domestically sourced material: iron. After about a decade of R&D and prototyping, his Somerville, Massachusetts-based company has shifted to commercial operations and begun shipping its first iron-air batteries that store electricity for at least 100 hours – with the added benefits that they have very long usable lives and don’t overheat or burn. Better still, nearly all the materials and components can be domestically sourced.

Production of the power units at Form’s Weirton, West Virginia, factory has only just begun, and already the company is finding more demand than it will be able to meet. Last week, Form also got its biggest order to date: a 300-megawatt battery system that will be used for a massive Google data center project in Pine Island, Minnesota, being built with Xcel Energy. Jaramillo wouldn’t confirm a report by The Information that Google is paying it $1 billion for the iron-air pack that will be larger than a city block when installed. He did say that Form needs to be price-competitive on a dollar-per-watt basis with the cost of installing natural gas turbines. Additionally, his goal is to deliver iron-air........

© Forbes