Ambrosia Energy will build a 10 GWh factory in Texas to make batteries for off-grid data centers

Ambrosia Energy has begun work on a massive, 10 gigawatt-hour battery factory near Austin, Texas, co-founder and CEO Ben Longmier announced onstage Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. “That allows us to build about a 300 megawatt power plant per year out at our field sites,” he said. The factory will occupy 150,000 square feet, and Longmier said that Ambrosia plans to reach full production in two to three years.

Ambrosia Energy 的联合创始人兼首席执行官 Ben Longmier 周二在旧金山举行的 TechCrunch Disrupt 大会上宣布，该公司已开始在德克萨斯州奥斯汀附近建造一座规模庞大的 10 吉瓦时电池工厂。他表示：“这使我们每年能够在现场基地建设约 300 兆瓦的发电厂。”该工厂占地 15 万平方英尺，Longmier 称 Ambrosia 计划在两到三年内实现全面投产。

The startup emerged from stealth in June to build power plants for data centers at a cost of $100 per megawatt hour. Longmier and his co-founder, Sara Spangelo, had settled on solar plus batteries as the cheapest option that’s the fastest to deploy. Solar panels power the load during the day and charge the batteries, which discharge at night and on cloudy days to keep the data center operating round the clock.

这家初创公司于 6 月结束隐身状态，旨在以每兆瓦时 100 美元的成本为数据中心建设发电厂。Longmier 和他的联合创始人 Sara Spangelo 确定“太阳能+电池”是成本最低且部署速度最快的方案。太阳能电池板在白天为负载供电并为电池充电，电池在夜间和阴天放电，以确保数据中心全天候运行。

Longmier and Spangelo previously founded the satellite constellation startup Swarm, which they sold to SpaceX. Ambrosia is also beginning work on its first commercial power plant in West Texas later this year, Longmier said. The facility will pair 300 megawatts of solar panels with 660 megawatt-hours of batteries to deliver 30 megawatts of continuous power, with a goal of 99.3% uptime.

Longmier 和 Spangelo 此前曾创立卫星星座初创公司 Swarm，并将其出售给了 SpaceX。Longmier 表示，Ambrosia 还将于今年晚些时候在西德克萨斯州开始建设其首个商业发电厂。该设施将把 300 兆瓦的太阳能电池板与 660 兆瓦时的电池相结合，以提供 30 兆瓦的持续电力，目标是实现 99.3% 的正常运行时间。

Even with “overbuilding” solar and batteries to deliver continuous uptime, Longmier said the company can be profitable at $100 per megawatt-hour, making it competitive with natural gas turbines that many hyperscalers are planning to use to power their data centers. Sections of Ambrosia’s first pilot-scale power plant have been operating continuously for more than 100 days, Longmier said. The pilot is capable of generating 200 kilowatts of electricity 24/7.

尽管通过“过度建设”太阳能和电池来确保持续运行，但 Longmier 表示，公司在每兆瓦时 100 美元的成本下仍能盈利，这使其能够与许多超大规模数据中心计划使用的天然气涡轮机竞争。Longmier 称，Ambrosia 首个试点规模发电厂的部分设施已连续运行超过 100 天。该试点项目能够全天候产生 200 千瓦的电力。

To hit its cost targets, Ambrosia has been finding ways to simplify its components, including solar mounts and battery packs. By reducing part counts, and manufacturing many components in a factory, the startup has been able to reduce costs relative to buying from outside suppliers. “We buy existing cells and we make our own pack in-house, and it has the fewest parts by a factor of about 100 compared to any other competitor we’ve seen,” Longmier said.

为了实现成本目标，Ambrosia 一直在寻找简化组件的方法，包括太阳能支架和电池组。通过减少零件数量并在工厂内制造许多组件，这家初创公司得以降低成本，而无需依赖外部供应商。Longmier 说：“我们购买现有的电芯并自行制造电池组，与我们见过的任何其他竞争对手相比，我们的零件数量减少了约 100 倍。”