GM joins race to build batteries for AI data centers and the grid
GM joins race to build batteries for AI data centers and the grid
通用汽车加入竞赛，为人工智能数据中心和电网制造电池
The race to secure power for AI data centers has spilled over into some unusual places, including the automotive world. Battery recycler Redwood Materials kicked off the trend last year with a new energy-storage division and a project that attached old EV packs to a Crusoe data center in Nevada. Then Ford said it was repurposing some of its battery-manufacturing capacity to make grid-scale batteries. And now GM is announcing its own — arguably more ambitious — plans for an energy-storage system (ESS).
为人工智能（AI）数据中心争取电力的竞赛已经蔓延到了一些意想不到的领域，其中包括汽车行业。电池回收商 Redwood Materials 去年开启了这一趋势，成立了新的储能部门，并开展了一个将旧电动汽车电池组连接到内华达州 Crusoe 数据中心的项目。随后，福特汽车表示正在调整部分电池制造产能，以生产电网级电池。现在，通用汽车（GM）也宣布了其自身——可以说更为雄心勃勃的——储能系统（ESS）计划。
GM unveiled on Tuesday two new phases in its attack on the energy-storage market. The biggest swing by far is GM’s new partnership with energy-storage startup Peak Energy. For that partnership, GM is developing an entirely new sodium-ion battery chemistry tailored for grid-scale deployments. Outside of China, no automaker has announced plans to build sodium-ion cells.
通用汽车周二公布了其进军储能市场的两个新阶段。其中规模最大的一步是通用汽车与储能初创公司 Peak Energy 建立的新合作伙伴关系。通过此次合作，通用汽车正在开发一种专为电网级部署量身定制的全新钠离子电池化学体系。在中国以外，还没有其他汽车制造商宣布过制造钠离子电池的计划。
“The way we’re getting into the market is the easy way, through ESS,” Kurt Kelty, vice president of battery and sustainability at GM, told TechCrunch. “The performance characteristics are just what is needed in that market.” GM wouldn’t share with TechCrunch how much money it is investing in this energy-storage effort. But we do know the company has committed $900 million to commercialize new battery chemistries, an investment that includes a new battery-development center.
“我们进入市场的方式很直接，那就是通过储能系统（ESS），”通用汽车电池与可持续发展副总裁 Kurt Kelty 对 TechCrunch 表示。“其性能特征正是该市场所需要的。”通用汽车未向 TechCrunch 透露其在储能业务上的具体投资金额。但我们已知该公司已投入 9 亿美元用于新电池化学体系的商业化，其中包括一个新建的电池开发中心。
Sodium-ion batteries work similarly to lithium-ion, but they swap out key materials to make the cells cheaper, longer lasting, and less prone to overheating. The trade-off is that sodium-ion batteries need to be larger and heavier to store the same amount of electricity. Peak Energy has already been working on energy-storage systems that use sodium-ion batteries. Because sodium-ion batteries behave differently from lithium-ion, Peak has developed an energy-storage system with that in mind.
钠离子电池的工作原理与锂离子电池相似，但它们更换了关键材料，使电池成本更低、寿命更长，且不易过热。其代价是，钠离子电池需要做得更大、更重才能储存相同数量的电能。Peak Energy 此前一直在研究使用钠离子电池的储能系统。由于钠离子电池的特性与锂离子电池不同，Peak 在开发储能系统时充分考虑了这一点。
Its grid-scale batteries don’t have cooling systems or fire-suppression systems because there’s less risk of overheating. The setup reduces upfront costs, and it should also eliminate costly maintenance, Paul Menson, director of energy-storage commercialization at GM, told TechCrunch. “This is the manifestation of the hardest part to engineer is no part at all,” he said. “Eliminate the part, eliminate the problem.”
由于过热风险较低，其电网级电池无需配备冷却系统或灭火系统。通用汽车储能商业化总监 Paul Menson 对 TechCrunch 表示，这种设置降低了前期成本，也消除了昂贵的维护费用。“这体现了‘最难的工程设计就是无需设计’的理念，”他说。“消除了零件，就消除了问题。”
GM plans to sell sodium-ions cells to the startup, which will then integrate them into its products. But that won’t happen right away. The first GM cells are expected to enter trial production at the company’s Battery Cell Development Center in 2028. TechCrunch was recently given an exclusive look at the new facility, which GM expects will cut about a year from the commercialization process for sodium-ion batteries, reducing costs in the process.
通用汽车计划将钠离子电芯出售给这家初创公司，由后者将其集成到产品中。但这不会立即实现。首批通用汽车电芯预计将于 2028 年在其电池电芯开发中心投入试生产。TechCrunch 最近独家参观了该新设施，通用汽车预计该设施将使钠离子电池的商业化进程缩短约一年，并在此过程中降低成本。
GM’s sodium-ion cells are still years away from commercial production, however. In the meantime, the automaker will sell lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells to LG Energy Solution for use in its energy-storage systems. LG Energy Solution already works with GM through its Ultium joint venture, which makes batteries for the automaker’s EVs.
然而，通用汽车的钠离子电池距离商业化生产还有数年时间。在此期间，该汽车制造商将向 LG 新能源（LG Energy Solution）出售磷酸铁锂（LFP）电芯，用于其储能系统。LG 新能源此前已通过双方的 Ultium 合资企业与通用汽车合作，为通用汽车的电动汽车生产电池。
Alongside the partnerships with LG and Peak, GM announced that it was expanding its work with Redwood Materials, the battery-recycling and energy-storage startup founded by former Tesla executive J.B. Straubel. Redwood already buys scrap from GM’s battery factories and used battery packs from its EVs. GM has a pipeline of around 10,000 packs it’s sending to Redwood, and the startup has been operating a 12 megawatt/63 megawatt-hour microgrid using second-life packs at a Crusoe data center in Sparks, Nevada.
除了与 LG 和 Peak 的合作外，通用汽车还宣布扩大与 Redwood Materials 的合作。Redwood Materials 是一家由前特斯拉高管 J.B. Straubel 创立的电池回收和储能初创公司。Redwood 此前已从通用汽车的电池工厂购买废料，并回收其电动汽车的废旧电池组。通用汽车目前有约 10,000 个电池组的回收计划正在输送给 Redwood，而该公司目前正在内华达州斯帕克斯（Sparks）的 Crusoe 数据中心运营一个使用二次利用电池组的 12 兆瓦/63 兆瓦时微电网。
GM said it is buying a 7.2 megawatt-hour Redwood system for use at one of its plants in Michigan, which it estimates will save it around $3 million over its lifetime. The GM installation is “a step one” for Redwood, Cal Lankton, chief commercial officer for Redwood, told TechCrunch. Data centers, where Redwood already operates, and industrial sites like GM’s are “vastly different things,” he said.
通用汽车表示，正在购买一套 7.2 兆瓦时的 Redwood 系统，用于其在密歇根州的一家工厂，预计在其使用寿命内可节省约 300 万美元。Redwood 首席商务官 Cal Lankton 对 TechCrunch 表示，通用汽车的这一安装项目对 Redwood 而言是“第一步”。他指出，Redwood 已经运营的数据中心与通用汽车这样的工业场所是“截然不同的事物”。
Where data centers might use batteries nearly continuously to absorb some of the power fluctuations from GPUs, industrial sites are more likely to use them to shave off peaks in power demand, which can lower monthly power bills, and use them to provide backup power in case of an outage. “The factory is really excited because now we’ve got a more reliable factory,” Kelty said. “Ultimately, we’ll be having similar installations like this at all of our factories. It just makes good economic sense.”
数据中心可能几乎持续使用电池来吸收 GPU 产生的电力波动，而工业场所则更倾向于利用电池进行削峰填谷，从而降低每月的电费，并在停电时提供备用电源。“工厂方面非常兴奋，因为现在我们拥有了一个更可靠的工厂，”Kelty 说。“最终，我们将在所有的工厂进行类似的安装。这在经济上是非常合理的。”