Google announced Tuesday that it’s going to construct an information heart in Minnesota that’s backed by 1.9 gigawatts of fresh energy, together with a large 300-megawatt battery made by startup Type Power.
The brand new information heart, Google’s first in Minnesota, will probably be positioned in Pine Island, about an hour southeast of Minneapolis.
The tech firm is working with Xcel Power to construct 1.4 gigawatts of wind energy and 200 megawatts of solar energy. Each will feed Type’s battery, which will probably be able to delivering its rated energy for 100 hours. At 30 gigawatt-hours, will probably be the most important battery on this planet, serving to the info heart function on clear power for longer durations of time.
Such long-duration batteries assist renewable power sources proceed to offer energy at night time or throughout lulls, “firming” the ability supply, as consultants name it. Grid-scale lithium-ion batteries do that already, although for shorter durations.
Type Power’s batteries are not like most different grid-scale batteries. Whereas a typical grid-scale battery at present makes use of lithium-ion expertise that’s been repurposed from chemistries utilized by the automotive trade, Type’s batteries retailer power by rusting and deoxidizing iron.
When oxygen from the air flows over pebbles of iron contained in the battery, it rusts the iron, producing electrical energy within the course of. To cost, electrical present deoxidizes the rust, turning it again into metallic iron and releasing oxygen within the course of, which is drawn out of the battery.
As battery chemistries go, Type’s iron-air cells are heavy and never very environment friendly. Typical iron-air batteries can solely ship 50% to 70% of the power used to cost them, in contrast with upwards of 90% for lithium-ion batteries. However for all their downsides, they arrive with one very massive upside: they’re extremely low cost. Type says 1 kilowatt-hour of storage will finally value simply $20 utilizing their expertise, which is at the very least thrice cheaper than lithium-ion batteries.
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June 9, 2026
The brand new challenge additionally introduces a wonky utility charge construction to Minnesota that’s meant to assist utilities undertake clear applied sciences with out operating afoul of their regulators, which push utilities to make use of the most affordable supply of electrical energy.
Google first developed the idea in Nevada, the place it’s shopping for energy from enhanced geothermal startup Fervo. Alternately known as the “clear transition tariff” or the “clear power accelerator cost,” the settlement between Google and Xcel permits the utility to simply accept tasks that could be thought-about dangerous by regulators, with the tech firm paying a premium to make sure that common ratepayers aren’t left holding the bag.
Photo voltaic and wind are each confirmed applied sciences, however Type’s iron-air batteries are nonetheless comparatively new. The startup’s first battery is at present being put in in Minnesota with cooperative utility Nice River Power, and it’ll retailer 150 megawatt-hours for 100 hours, sending 1.5 megawatts to the grid at its peak.
Type makes its batteries at a manufacturing facility in West Virginia. The corporate has raised $1.4 billion so far, in keeping with PitchBook information.
