INDUSTRY WATCH batteries require much less cooling and energy use than their lead-acid counterpart , which traditionally cap at 25 degrees celsius .
Moreover , when sitting idle , a lithium-ion battery loses just one-to-two percent of its charge per month and offers an average lifetime double that of a lead-acid battery , significantly reducing on-going maintenance costs . Data center operators can further optimize the battery ’ s life cycle with its unique in-built battery health management system .
Further , these batteries are far denser , using just half of the rack space compared with lead-acid batteries . The industry may be expanding , but the size of the infrastructure itself is shrinking , just as the batteries that support it need to too , all the while running harder and faster .
So as lithium-ion batteries increase in popularity across the industry , there ’ s an economies of scale opportunity in Australia – bringing the greener advantage further up the supply chain .
Shifting the lithium-ion battery value chain
Australia holds significant global supply-chain advantages by having almost all of the necessary mineral elements available , combined with demonstrated expertise in high-tech engineering and renewables research .
By enabling efficient domestic processing and manufacturing of finished products , our accessible resource base of raw materials fully supports a short supply-chain production capacity .
The benefits are evident . Where the smaller footprint and reduced maintenance requirements are a natural fit , data centers and businesses can leverage this technology to lower costs and free up valuable IT capacity .
NOW IS THE TIME TO IMPROVE THE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY OF AUSTRALIA ’ S DATA CENTER ECOSYSTEM .
But to date , there ’ s no operational commercialscale lithium-ion battery manufacturer in Australia . Yet , lithium itself is a compound mineral in which the country is vastly rich .
Further , Australia has domestic access to every essential mineral required to support the lithium-ion battery supply chain , and positively we ’ ve just begun to see movement in building onshore capability with local battery manufacturers announcing multi-million-dollar production facilities .
For our burgeoning data center industry , expanding lithium-ion battery production in Australia serves as a more intelligent way to ready the country for a post-pandemic digital revolution , sustainably and efficiently . p
74 INTELLIGENTCIO APAC www . intelligentcio . com