With a boom in demand for data centres in Australia, one of the overriding concerns is to ensure a sustainable and clean power supply to them.
Data centres supporting power-intensive tasks such as AI services, cryptocurrency mining and cloud services could require between 3.3 and 5 gigawatts of additional capacity by 2030, or about 15 percent of total load, according to investment bank UBS.
“The exponential growth of generative AI, cloud computing and digital services has made energy a critical chokepoint in data infrastructure,” Allegro Energy chief executive officer Dr Thomas Nann says.
Currently, the data centres already online account for approximately a quarter of large industrial power demand in the country.
To meet present and future demand, Allegro Energy says that its cutting-edge long-duration, energy storage (LDES) technology enables scalable, sustainable energy solutions for data centres.
“We believe the future of high-performance computing does not need to come at the cost of the planet. With our technology, data centres can be powered entirely by renewables, supported by reliable, cost-effective long-duration storage,” Nann says.
The advantages of Allegro’s LDES technology
Allegro says its clean power strategy combines renewable generation with long-duration energy storage.
It says its modular, scalable and environmentally friendly battery systems overcome traditional challenges such as the prohibitive cost, difficulty in scaling and sustainability challenges associated with traditional lithium-ion or vanadium-based systems.
Allegro’s system reportedly employs a proprietary, locally-manufactured microemulsion electrolyte technology. This design eliminates the need for rare metals, reducing fire risk and allowing for extended storage durations at a significantly lower cost.
Allegro’s LDES systems grow in parallel with a data centre’s needs. This, it says, allows incremental investment and deployment, a model that is well-suited for both hyper-scale facilities and edge data centres.
It also pairs with solar and wind energy, helping data centres navigate grid volatility and peak pricing while advancing the operator’s net-zero carbon targets.
Allegro adds that, unlike conventional technologies, the company’s water-based electrolyte is not resource-constrained, offering a low-impact alternative that can be deployed at scale.
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