Data centers are very complex buildings, with many integrated subsystems working together to provide tiered layers of service and redundancy for clients. A critical part of a high availability Tier 3/Tier 4 data center is its uninteruptible power supply (UPS), which for decades has been provided by lead acid batteries. Several other technologies have been used, such as flywheels, to provide the stored energy to operate the compute equipment until power is restored or the motor generators come on line to take up the load. The lead acid batteries are heavy, large and do not have the power density of newer batteries, but they do have one key advantage: price. That's about to change.
One of my hobbies (my wife says I have too many!) is radio controlled airplanes. The fastest growing segment of the hobby is electric propulsion, driven by battery technology from cell phones and laptops, and motor technology from DVD players. The power density of newer lithium based batteries, primarily lithium polymer (LiPo), has enabled modelers to build models that are on an equal basis to planes powered by internal combustion engines. Lithium based batteries come in many shapes and sizes and for different applications, ranging from power tools to the Chevy Volt and other electric cars. The dominant battery for commercial applications is lithium ion, which has great charging and life cycle characteristics.
What does this have to do with data centers? Gartner in 2011 evaluated data center technologies, and noted that the newer technology batteries were not making inroads in the UPS space because of price. With the increase in sales of vehicles like the Volt, Nissan Leaf and other cars will drive increased production, with improvements in quality and capacity as competition takes hold, along with dropping price points. I have personally seen how competition has acted in this space, as my hobby batteries have dropped about 50% in price in less than a year, while the quality has improved at the same time. This price drop will lead to increased opportunity to take advantage of the lower weight and smaller space requirements that this new technology brings.
