en.Wedoany.com Reported - Multiple companies are exploring new business models that combine battery energy storage systems with AI data centers. VivoPower plans to integrate battery storage assets at a Norwegian data center to participate in the Nordic ancillary services market for additional revenue, while Sunrun is piloting the deployment of distributed computing nodes in customer homes in the U.S. to provide inference capabilities.
Battery energy storage systems can help data center operators meet energy capacity and computing power demands, but the business model is not yet fully mature. Omri Tayyara, Business Manager at standards organization CSA Group, noted in PV Tech Power Vol.46 that energy storage can alleviate grid capacity pressure while meeting the rapidly growing power demands of AI training loads, which have surpassed those of any previous generation of data centers. The fast power supply capabilities, capacity requirements, and ability to manage power fluctuations in AI data centers are developing in tandem.
VivoPower is advancing a technical and commercial feasibility study to integrate a battery energy storage system at a 41.5MW data center in Mo I Rana, northern Norway. The data center is already powered by hydropower renewable energy and currently has no tenants, but VivoPower stated at the end of June that it has selected a global AI industry leader as the preferred tenant. Preliminary research indicates that participating in three Nordic ancillary services markets with battery storage assets at the site could be profitable, including Frequency Containment Reserve for Normal Operation (FCR-N), Frequency Containment Reserve for Disturbances (FCR-D), and Fast Frequency Response (FFR). FCR-N requires grid charging and discharging for one hour, FCR-D adjusts power within a 20-minute window, and FFR activates within 0.7 to 1.3 seconds. VivoPower did not disclose the proposed size of the battery storage system but noted that the Mo I Rana site is located in Norway's NO4 bidding zone, where the day-ahead average electricity price is extremely low, at approximately $0.009/kWh, compared to southern Norway and continental Europe where average prices range from $0.05 to $0.077/kWh, making the site suitable for high-energy-consumption data centers. The co-located battery storage system can access the reserve market as an additional revenue stream while enhancing AI tenant ride-through capability and power quality resilience, preserving the site's 41.5MW of leasable power capacity. The site's potential EBITDA benefits could reach up to $4 million.
The Nordic electricity market is shared across regional national grids, but electricity prices are determined locally. Currently, prices in the Nordic ancillary services market are high, driving battery storage development, but as the number of assets increases, revenues may trend downward. Notably, Mo I Rana is also the city where lithium-ion battery startup Freyr Battery once planned to build Giga Arctic. The company has exited the battery sector due to inability to compete with existing Chinese companies and has pivoted to solar photovoltaic manufacturing under the new name T1 Energy.
Sunrun has launched a distributed edge computing pilot at undisclosed locations in the U.S. The residential solar photovoltaic and energy storage leasing company has completed a proof of concept demonstrating revenue generation and high demand, and is now deploying computing nodes in customer homes equipped with Sunrun solar and battery storage systems. Sunrun will sell inference capabilities while testing computing nodes under different conditions and electricity pricing structures to collect operational data. Existing power infrastructure can alleviate grid pressure, while customer systems continue to power homes, provide backup power, and participate in grid services markets. Sunrun did not disclose the scale of the pilot program but stated it can leverage an existing base of over 1.1 million customers. The company has aggregated systems into virtual power plants in eligible regions, including California, with multiple megawatt systems providing demand response during emergency peak load events. Paul Dickson, Sunrun's President and Chief Revenue Officer, stated that behind-the-meter edge computing nodes can alleviate rising electricity prices, grid overload, and power supply shortages while providing the fast power supply capabilities needed by data center developers, eliminating bottlenecks in land acquisition, transmission interconnection queues, and infrastructure construction.
