Cell Design and Materials: Alternative Chemistries

Nickel Zinc Batteries Continue to Make Inroads Nickel Zinc Batteries as an alternative to both lead acid batteries and increasingly li-ion batteries for critical infrastructure particularly in dealing with intense AI warble profiles and recent safety concerns for data centers. Form Factors

Basic Chemistry

Applications UPS Battery Cabinets [Deployed]

Covering both centralized and distributed UPS battery backup systems for data centers and other critical power infrastructure in both monobloc and cylindrical formats.

In Server Rack Battery Backup Units [Commissioning]

Companies such as AEsir technologies are able to use manufacturing lines used by lead acid battery manufacturers due to the similarity in design.

Zn + 2NiOOH 2H2O Zn(OH)2 + Ni(OH)2 2 Features: 3x power density to lead acid, 1⁄2 size, 1⁄3 weight3

EnZinc similarly plans to utilize existing manufacturing lines through selling their anode sponge and Zinc Nickel design to existing lead-acid manufacturers.

Intelligent Transportation Service ITS [Deployed]

Continuous connectivity within a string even with a depleted cell.4 Source: 1 I.T. Bello et al., EcoMat, 2025., 2 DOE Technology Strategy Assessment, 3 Data Center Dynamics, 4 Best Magazine

Installed in roadside and intersection traffic signal cabinets to provide reliable power supply protecting against voltage drops and surges in harsh operating temperatures.

Defense [Trialing]

Cylindrical form factors are becoming an additional offering from companies such as ZincFive, Zelos Energy, and GP Energy Tech utilizing adjacent chemistry manufacturing technologies.

Located within the physical server rack of data centers to provide short-to-medium term backup with increasing role of peak shaving from AI warbles.

Deployed in naval platforms as a main or auxiliary battery to increase performance without thermal-runaway risks. Used as an upgrade to existing NiCd batteries for aircrafts.

Industrial Generator Starters [Deployed]

Dedicated batteries that supply short, high-current bursts; described as Cold Current Amps CCA, to crank back-up generator engines online.

Extracted from the PDF; charts and images may read imperfectly.