US energy storage firm Energy Vault has signed a strategic partnership with Peak Energy to develop dedicated energy storage architecture for AI-focused data centers and grid-scale storage projects.

The system will combine Peak Energy’s sodium-ion battery technology with Energy Vault’s proprietary system design and Vault OS software. According to the companies, the system is designed to address the volatile and high-peak power profiles of AI training and inference workloads, which conventional battery energy storage systems (BESS) are not optimized to support.

“The rapid growth of AI is exposing fundamental limitations in conventional power infrastructure,” said Marco Terruzzin, chief revenue officer at Energy Vault. “This solution enables faster deployment, lower cost, and improved safety by combining Energy Vault’s integration platform with Peak’s sodium-ion technology.”

The solution will be exclusive to Energy Vault and is intended to support the company’s “powered shell” data center offering. Energy Vault claims that the architecture will simplify electrical design, reduce reliance on traditional UPS systems, lower cooling requirements, and improve handling of high-volatility compute loads.

As part of the partnership, Energy Vault has executed a supply agreement to secure 1.5GWh of US-manufactured sodium-ion battery systems from Peak. The partners said this domestic supply could allow projects to qualify for Domestic Content Investment Tax Credits, which they claim could improve the economics of the solution in comparison with lithium-ion systems and foreign-sourced batteries.

“Lowering the cost of energy is essential for winning the AI race, and Peak's proprietary sodium-ion energy storage systems offer the lowest cost and fastest way to get data centers on the grid,” said Landon Mossburg, CEO at Peak Energy. “This partnership confirms that Peak technology is at the center of meeting AI energy needs today and into the future.”

All of the systems deployed under the partnership are expected to be fully integrated into Energy Vault’s Vault OS energy management platform, which will manage the operating characteristics of sodium-ion batteries, optimize dispatch, and maintain Energy Vault’s operational control of the assets.

In addition, Energy Vault has secured exclusive channel partner rights for Peak’s sodium-ion technology in Australia and Japan, making it the sole provider of Peak’s energy storage solution in those regions.

Energy Vault develops and operates grid-scale energy storage projects using battery, gravity, and hydrogen technologies. Energy Vault has signed several deals with data center operators to supply them with energy storage systems. Most notably, in December 2024, the company partnered with RackScale Data Centers (RSDC) to deliver 2GW/20GWh of primary power to RSDC data centers through its novel battery energy storage system.

Peak Energy is a US-based manufacturer of sodium-ion energy storage systems founded in 2023. In 2024, the company partnered with Digital Edge to supply energy infrastructure for the company's data center portfolio.