Originally posted on EEPower.
ZincFive’s new report reveals data center trends in meeting challenges in power density, backup power, scalability, and sustainability.
Energy storage in data centers is entering a significant transition, driven by rising AI adoption and power density requirements. A report from ZincFive, based on feedback from over 130 global data center professionals surveyed in early 2025, reveals just how fast the trends are shifting.
With AI placing greater strain on electrical infrastructure, data centers are under pressure to deliver higher power density, shorten backup runtimes, and adopt scalable yet sustainable energy storage architectures as legacy systems are pushed to their limits.
Power Demands and Battery Chemistry Tradeoffs
AI is making a major impact on power and energy storage, with over half of respondents citing increased energy efficiency and power density in a smaller footprint. Lower-ranked impacts include onsite power generation, GPU-induced load variation support, and the shift to medium-voltage distribution.
About 96% of ZincFive’s survey respondents foresaw a push toward customized data center power architecture, suggesting that off-the-shelf designs can no longer keep pace with AI’s demands.
In assessing energy storage solutions, data centers said they were most concerned with lifetime costs (both capital and operating expenses), followed by battery safety, sustainability, and regulatory approval. Lead time and UPS footprint ranked lower overall but were still marked as top or high-priority by two-thirds of respondents.
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