AI data center developer Crusoe has expanded its strategic partnership with battery energy storage firm Redwood Materials.

The expansion follows the successful deployment of a 12MW/63MWh microgrid system at a Crusoe Spark modular data center. The expansion will see Crusoe expand the deployment from four to 24 Crusoe Spark data centers.

The microgrid system, which was launched in June of last year, consists of solar and repurposed electric vehicle batteries. According to the companies, the system delivered 99.2 percent operational availability over seven months of continuous operation with minimal unplanned downtime.

“Since launch, the Redwood Energy and Crusoe system has demonstrated that repurposed EV batteries can reliably power high-performance compute workloads at scale,” said JB Straubel, founder and CEO of Redwood Materials. “Achieving 99.2 percent uptime validated our approach and gave us the confidence to expand compute capacity nearly sevenfold on the same energy infrastructure. Together with Crusoe, we’re demonstrating a faster, more flexible, and lower-cost way to build and power AI infrastructure.”

“By expanding our work with Redwood Energy to 20MW, we are proving that the ‘AI factory’ of the future can be quickly scaled through the convergence of innovative energy solutions and modular infrastructure deployment,” said Cully Cavness, co-founder, president, and chief strategy officer of Crusoe. “This expansion allows us to quickly and predictably deliver high-performance Crusoe Cloud compute capacity to our customers through Crusoe Spark modular data centers.”

Crusoe Spark is a modular data center solution that integrates data center critical infrastructure, including cooling, power, and GPU-ready racks, into a single unit, optimized for AI compute. The system is designed for rapid deployments and can be scaled due to its modular nature.

According to Crusoe, the solution is ideal for ranging applications, such as delivering low-latency AI inference services at the Edge without the site constraints of larger-scale AI infrastructure.

Form Energy

The expansion of the Redwood partnership was one of two deals Cruseo made within the energy storage market this week. The company also inked an agreement with US energy storage firm Form Energy for up to 12GWh of multi-day energy storage systems to support the AI data center sector, beginning in 2027.

Form Energy is based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and is a developer of iron-air batteries.

Under the terms of the agreement, Crusoe secured reserved volume, pricing, and delivery terms.

According to Form, its iron-air battery solution can deliver 100+ hours of storage and has no risk of thermal runaway, a key concern with lithium-ion batteries. Earlier this year, it inked an agreement with Google and Xcel Energy to deploy its solution at Google’s first data center in Minnesota.

“Powering the AI economy requires reliable, scalable, and cost-effective energy solutions,” said Mateo Jaramillo, co-founder and CEO of Form Energy. “This partnership with Crusoe, a market leader in energy-first AI infrastructure, demonstrates how multi-day energy storage can unlock new capacity for data centers while strengthening domestic manufacturing and delivering the firm, reliable power needed to support the next generation of AI infrastructure.”

According to Crusoe, the deal with the firm will support its Bring Your Own Capacity approach to AI infrastructure, where power infrastructure is developed alongside the data center to ensure an expedited route to market.

“The future of AI depends on access to abundant, reliable power delivered at speed,” said Cully Cavness, co-founder, president, and chief strategy officer at Crusoe. “This agreement with Form Energy reinforces Crusoe’s commitment to energy innovation and establishes a new model for securing energy infrastructure at scale, enabling us to meet growing demand while building a more resilient and sustainable system.”

The batteries will be manufactured at Form Energy’s Form Factory 1 in Weirton, West Virginia. According to the company, it has more than 65GWh of commercial projects under agreement, many of which are from the data center sector.