Google backs 86 MW solar, 100 MWh zinc storage at WV coal mine — SkimNews
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- Google will purchase the energy, capacity and clean energy attributes from the Mammoth Solar project on a former coal mine in Kanawha County, West Virginia, alongside developer MN8 and zinc-battery manufacturer Eos Energy Enterprises.
- The project pairs 86 MW of utility-scale solar with 10 MW/100 MWh of zinc-based long-duration storage and 70 MW/280 MWh of lithium-ion storage, with solar targeted for commercial operation in 2028 and storage in 2029–2030.
- The 10 MW zinc battery component ranks among the largest of its kind to date, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, which notes most operational zinc battery deployments have power ratings of 1 MW or less.
- Eos batteries use a nonflammable zinc-based electrolyte and can economically discharge for more than eight hours, the companies said, building on a 2024 supply agreement allowing Eos to supply up to 750 MWh of its Z3 modules to MN8 projects.
- The deal lands in the PJM Interconnection region, where recent capacity auctions have hit the price ceiling and a one-time backstop auction this fall is set to fill a nearly 7 GW shortfall.
- Google separately is funding what Xcel Energy says will be one of the world's largest battery installations — a 300 MW/30 GWh iron-air system in Minnesota built by Form Energy — as part of the same broader clean energy procurement for regional data centers.
- Lucia Tian, Google's director of advanced energy technologies, said the collaboration aims to deploy 'a smart portfolio of round-the-clock technology solutions' matched to data center load profiles throughout the day.
Why it matters: Google is using its data center power demand to bankroll two of the more ambitious long-duration storage projects in the U.S. — a 100 MWh zinc system in West Virginia and a 30 GWh iron-air system in Minnesota — putting capital into chemistries that could ease the PJM region's looming 7 GW capacity shortfall and accelerate commercialization of alternatives to lithium-ion.
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