- QinetiQ testing of SuperDielectrics' water-based zinc cells showed up to 13 times longer high-power cycle life, 100°C discharge in 36 seconds, and zero thermal runaway.
- The company is pitching its AI data center solution as a “shock absorber” that can safely and reliably deal with spikes in power demand.
- The first commercial deployment of SuperDielectrics' Faraday 3 is scheduled for early 2027 as it takes on existing lithium-ion battery-based energy storage as an alternative that can be deployed within the data center.
Cambridge-based advanced battery technology company SuperDielectrics recently published independent test results for its upcoming water-based zinc battery, which could help cement its de facto presence in most projects harnessing renewable energy, whose production is often inconsistent.
The next-generation battery delivers up to 13x longer cycle life under high-power cycling, zero thermal runway, and charge and discharge gains that eclipse those of lithium-ion-based batteries.
This makes it an excellent complement to critical infrastructure, as well as a new and rapidly growing sector that consumes a lot of energy and involves huge power spikes: AI data centers.
A solution that specifically addresses the energy problem of AI?
SuperDielectrics is touting its battery technology as the holy grail for AI data center problems, and rightly so: It's where all infrastructure spending will be concentrated over the next decade, and the company decidedly wants a piece of it.
SuperDielectrics' main innovation is a unique, patented polymer that allows it to deliver results that eclipse those of similarly configured single-layer lithium-ion cells. Since the battery leverages zinc in addition to the proprietary polymer, the abundantly available metal could mean batteries would be cheaper, immune to geopolitical and supply chain vulnerabilities, and easier to scale.
Room temperature testing of the battery showed impressive results compared to lithium-ion based alternatives, and SuperDielectrics claims:
– Up to 13 times longer cycle life at high power cycles (10 minutes charge and discharge, 100% depth of discharge);
– 10x better discharge performance (maintained >85% of rated capacity, achieved in 36 seconds)
– 8x better charging performance (maintained >70% of rated capacity, achieved in 1 minute and 12 seconds)
“These results provide an independent comparative evaluation of the core technology of our batteries: a patented polymer separator that combines rapid ion transport with the safety advantages of an aqueous electrolyte system,” said Shelley Brown, chief technology officer at SuperDielectrics.
“The result is an energy storage solution designed specifically for high-power, fast-cycle applications, offering an alternative to lithium-ion systems that typically rely on additional, oversized security infrastructure to manage demanding power profiles.”
There's more to the story that makes the solution ideal: unlike lithium-ion-based solutions, the battery can be safely deployed in data centers, while off-site deployments are currently required for lithium-ion-based solutions due to their potential as a fire risk.
AI data centers are known to be power hungry, often requiring significantly more peak power when performing certain computing tasks. Lithium-ion batteries are not ideal for this because not only do frequent charges and discharges degrade them quite quickly, but they also do not charge and discharge as quickly as SuperDielectrics' zinc-based offerings.
As a result, as noted by SuperDielectrics' CTO, data centers must overcompensate for this limitation by purchasing more capacity than necessary to enable smooth operations without straining existing lithium-ion-based infrastructure too much.
There's a trade-off, though: Zinc batteries typically sacrifice energy density to offer advantages over lithium, and SuperDielectrics' silence on capacity doesn't work in its favor here.
Despite this, thanks to the almost violent power swings of AI computing requirements requiring a moderator, SuperDielectrics appears to have a winner on its hands, at least on paper, but it could have its limits for data centers requiring longer backup times. The question that comes to mind is whether a smoothing layer can become genuine storage, especially for rack-scale product deployment.
On the other side of the equation, SuperDielectrics isn't the only one playing around with a “safe” battery solution; Chinese researchers are focusing on a similar approach even as the automobile industry is already using sodium for electric vehicles, which are already accruing benefits in extremely low temperature conditions.
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