Data center developer Crusoe is significantly increasing its energy storage capacity by partnering with Form Energy and Redwood Energy to procure batteries. The company said it would purchase 12 gigawatt-hours of Form Energy 100-hour long-term energy storage batteries. This is the second large order for Form; last month, the company announced that it would build a 30 gigawatt-hour battery project for Google in Minnesota. The deal is worth about $1 billion, according to The Information. The exact amount of the deal has not been disclosed, and Form is expected to begin delivering batteries to Crusoe in 2027. Although Crusoe's purchase scale is relatively small, it will still generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue for Form as the battery manufacturer launches its $0.5 billion financing round. According to PitchBook data, Form has raised a total of 1.4 billion US dollars so far. Previously, Form had signed smaller contracts with several utilities interested in testing the technology.

When the Form's iron-air battery is discharged, the oxygen in the air will flow through the iron particles inside the battery, generating rust and outputting electrical energy. When charging, the current is essentially to rust the iron particles, while releasing oxygen. Last year, Form began expanding its first plant in West Virginia in response to the upcoming landing of major contracts.

In addition, Crusoe announced a deepening partnership with Redwood Materials. Redwood Materials is a battery recycling and reuse company founded by former Tesla chief technology officer J. B. Straubel. The data center company has been running a 12-megawatt, 63-megawatt-hour battery plant in the microgrid system since June this year, which was the largest echelon battery project in the industry at the time. In the future, Redwood will use decommissioned electric vehicle batteries to provide an additional 8 MW of power.