Global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan has released its latest Analysis of Lithium Ion Battery in Data Centres, providing industry trends and insights into data center adoption of Li-ion battery technology. The report includes a comprehensive interpretation and analysis of Li-ion battery application status and requirements, data center Li-ion battery market size, data center Li-ion battery market application scenario analysis, and solutions to improve the reliability of Li-ion batteries.

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The full report is available for download courtesy of Huawei

According to Frost & Sullivan, Li-ion batteries accounted for 15 percent of the data center battery market in 2020, but with the increased adoption of the technology in data centers, this is expected to increase to 38.5 percent by 2025.

Compared with lead-acid batteries, Li-ion batteries offer longer service life, a smaller footprint, lower load-bearing requirements, simpler maintenance, better environmental protection, and greater stability. Li-ion batteries, therefore, offer a number of clear benefits that will increasingly make them the first choice for data center backup power in the future.

However, the technology is not without its risks that need to be understood before purchasing.

Frost & Sullivan has issued the following recommendations:

  1. Select stable cell materials. Among all the cell materials, Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, commonly abbreviated to ‘LFP’) offers the most highly stable molecular structure with no risk of fire resulting from thermal runaway. LFP decomposition does not generate dioxygen (O2) either, which dramatically reduces the risk of fire.
  2. Ensure system level reliability. The battery management system (BMS) of Li-ion batteries is particularly important. Multi-level BMS must be used to identify faults for advanced maintenance to control thermal runaway before it runs out of control.
  3. Combine with prevention and fire fighting. The reliability of Lithium batteries depends upon prevention. Should a fire occur, the impact must be minimized to prevent the fire from spreading in the cabinet. In addition, the cabinet must be equipped with fire extinguishing tools. Should a fire occur, the cabinet can be set to quickly extinguish the fire. In-cabinet fire extinguishing modes can be module-level or cabinet-level.

Learn more: Click here to download the full report