California-based TerraScale and its partners will deploy Ambri’s liquid metal battery technology for energy storage at its planned data centre complex in Nevada, Kallanish reports.

The mixed-use development in Reno, Nevada, will be developed over 10 years and will cover 1,497 hectares. It will include data centres and a logistics hub with 500 megawatts of renewable energy generated onsite and distributed by a microgrid, says Terra Scale, a clean infrastructure firm.

The deal calls for 250 MWh of initial Ambri long-duration battery storage systems in Reno, starting in 2021.

The company’s battery system utilises liquid calcium alloy anodes, molten salt electrolytes and cathodes made of solid particles of antimony. When the cell is heated, the metals and salts melt, creating a liquid-metal battery. The non-flow battery has a projected 20-year life expectancy. It is heavier than lithium-ion batteries and is being targeted at stationary battery projects.

The Nevada facility would sit next to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Centre with data centres operated by Apple, Google and Switch as well as Tesla’s Gigafactory.

The so-called Energos Reno Project intends to deploy green data centre technologies that are based on proprietary, high-performance energy production and data computing processes. It aims to enable secure, swift storage and transmission of data between government agencies and commercial clients. The data centre will capitalise on the renewable energy infrastructure and the reduced carbon operations.

“Our data centre technology partners are looking forward to deploying Ambri’s technology to enable high-volume, reliable and resilient energy storage with potentially the lowest levelized cost of storage in the industry,” says TerraScale ceo Danny Hayes in a statement. “TerraScale is very excited to deploy Ambri’s technology into our Energos Reno project.”

“The Ambri systems are particularly well-suited for the project’s high-desert operations, for shifting of its large amounts of renewable solar load and for its grid-system peak shaving capacity,” says Adam Briggs, the company’s chief commercial officer.

Ambri is based in Marlborough, Massachusetts.