Rosendin partners with Phinergy to rollout aluminum-air backup for US data center market

Power generation firm Phinergy has partnered with Rosendin, a US-based electrical contracting company, to support the rollout of aluminum-air backup power systems to the US data center market.

The partnership is aiming to replace diesel generators with a low-carbon alternative for mission-critical facilities and microgrids. Phinergy is developing an Aluminum-Air Generator (AAG), which uses aluminum as a fuel, producing electricity without on-site emissions.

The solution is designed for megawatt-scale applications, with the company claiming that the system can provide multi-day resilience for hyperscale data centers. Unlike traditional batteries, which carry oxygen in heavy electrodes, Phinergy’s AAG is able to take in oxygen from the air, which the company says significantly reduces the weight of the units.

“This collaboration with Rosendin marks a pivotal step in scaling Phinergy’s aluminum-air technology for the data center industry – one of the most demanding and fastest-growing energy markets,” said Emmanuel Levy, CEO of Phinergy.

The Israeli-based company has specifically targeted the data center market as a key offtaker of its solution. It claims that its AAG can deliver approximately 10MWh per cubic meter compared to diesel’s 4MWh, and at a lower price point.

Rosendin SVP Bill Mazzetti said the solution addresses the growing need for reliable, decarbonized power as data center expansion and large-load demand increase. “Our clients simply need more power, and without it, development stops dead,” he said.

In addition to the partnership with Rosendin, Phinergy’s AAG was selected by the Net Zero Innovation Hub for Data Centers – which counts Data4, Google, Microsoft, Vertiv, and Schneider Electric as members – as a key technology to accelerate the transition to data centers’ net-zero operations.

The technology was selected from more than 70 proposals submitted in response to the Hub’s Request for Information aimed at identifying clean and scalable backup energy systems for data centers. Following its selection, the company will collaborate with the hub to execute a funded project to scale the backup systems to megawatt level and deploy them in live data center environments.

Phinergy was founded in Lod, Israel, back in 2009. In February 2001, it completed an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. In March of the same year, it formed a joint venture with Indian Oil to collaborate on developing Aluminum-Air systems in India.

San Jose-based Rosendin has signed several partnerships within the data center sector to support the integration of battery storage assets. In June, it partnered with FlexGen Power Systems to develop a utility-scale Battery Energy Storage System designed to replace traditional UPS infrastructure in data centers.