In what may be the most ambitious energy storage deal ever struck by a technology company, Google has signed an agreement with EnergyVault Holdings to develop what would become the world’s largest battery system — a staggering 1-gigawatt installation designed to power the search giant’s artificial intelligence data centers. The deal, if fully realized, would dwarf every existing battery storage project on the planet and signal a dramatic new chapter in how Big Tech secures the enormous quantities of electricity needed to train and run AI models.
The agreement, announced in late May 2025, calls for EnergyVault to develop up to 1 gigawatt of battery energy storage systems across multiple sites in the United States. According to Interesting Engineering, the project would be roughly four times larger than the current record holder for the world’s biggest battery — the Moss Landing facility in Monterey County, California, which has a capacity of approximately 750 megawatts. Google’s planned installation would represent a quantum leap in scale, one that reflects the extraordinary power demands of modern AI infrastructure.
A Deal Born From AI’s Insatiable Appetite for Power
The timing of the announcement is no coincidence. Google, like its rivals Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, has been racing to build out data center capacity to support the computational demands of generative AI. Training large language models and running inference workloads at scale requires continuous, reliable power — and lots of it. Google’s own environmental reports have shown its electricity consumption surging in recent years, with data center energy use climbing roughly 17% in 2023 alone, a trend that has only accelerated with the rollout of Gemini and other AI products.
The challenge for Google — and for every major cloud and AI provider — is that this power must increasingly come from clean sources if the company hopes to meet its stated goal of running on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. Solar and wind are abundant and increasingly cheap, but they are intermittent. Batteries bridge that gap, storing surplus renewable energy generated during peak production hours and dispatching it when the sun sets or the wind dies down. A 1-gigawatt battery system would give Google an enormous buffer, enabling it to match its consumption with clean energy around the clock at facilities that might otherwise rely on fossil-fuel backup generation.
EnergyVault Steps Into the Spotlight
For EnergyVault, a publicly traded company headquartered in Westlake Village, California, the Google contract represents a transformational moment. The company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NRGV, has been developing a portfolio of energy storage technologies, including lithium-ion battery systems and its proprietary gravity-based storage technology, which uses massive composite blocks raised and lowered by cranes to store and release energy. However, the Google project is expected to rely primarily on lithium-ion battery technology, which remains the most commercially proven and scalable option for grid-scale storage.
As reported by Interesting Engineering, EnergyVault CEO Robert Piconi described the agreement as a landmark for the company. The deal is structured as a framework agreement, meaning the full 1 GW will be developed in phases across multiple locations rather than as a single monolithic installation. This phased approach allows both companies to manage supply chain risks and adapt to evolving battery technology and pricing trends. EnergyVault’s stock saw significant movement following the announcement, reflecting investor enthusiasm about the scale and prestige of the contract.
The Scale Problem: Why 1 Gigawatt Matters
To appreciate the magnitude of this project, some context is helpful. One gigawatt of battery storage capacity is enough to power roughly 750,000 homes for a limited period, depending on the duration of the storage system. Most large-scale battery installations today are measured in the hundreds of megawatts. The Moss Landing facility in California, operated by Vistra Corp., reached 750 MW after multiple expansions and was previously considered an outlier in terms of scale. Before that, Tesla’s Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia — the project that first demonstrated the viability of grid-scale batteries — was just 150 MW.
Google’s planned 1 GW system would not only surpass these benchmarks but would do so in service of a single corporate customer rather than a utility or grid operator. This distinction matters. Historically, large battery projects have been developed by utilities or independent power producers to serve the broader electrical grid, providing services like frequency regulation, peak shaving, and renewable energy integration. Google’s project, by contrast, is designed primarily to ensure that its own data centers have access to reliable, clean power. This corporate-driven model of energy storage procurement could become a template for other hyperscale technology companies facing similar challenges.
Big Tech’s Growing Footprint in Energy Markets
Google is far from alone in making aggressive energy moves. Microsoft has signed deals to purchase nuclear power, including a controversial agreement to restart a unit at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Amazon has been acquiring data center-adjacent solar and wind farms at a furious pace and has invested in nuclear startup X-energy. Meta has explored geothermal energy and signed large-scale renewable power purchase agreements. The common thread is that AI’s power requirements are pushing technology companies deeper into energy markets than ever before, effectively turning them into some of the largest energy buyers — and increasingly, energy developers — in the world.
The battery storage sector, in particular, has attracted intense interest. According to recent reporting, the U.S. battery storage market is expected to more than double in installed capacity over the next several years, driven by falling lithium-ion cell prices, supportive federal policies including the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment tax credits, and growing demand from both utilities and corporate buyers. Google’s deal with EnergyVault is the most dramatic example yet of a corporate buyer driving this expansion, but analysts expect similar announcements from other tech giants in the coming months.
Risks and Open Questions
Despite the enthusiasm, the project faces significant hurdles. Building 1 GW of battery storage requires an enormous quantity of lithium-ion cells, and the global battery supply chain — while expanding rapidly — remains subject to bottlenecks and price volatility. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, and other critical minerals must be sourced, refined, and manufactured into cells, a process that is concentrated in a handful of countries, most notably China. Any disruption in this supply chain could delay timelines or increase costs.
There are also questions about the duration of the storage systems. A battery’s capacity, measured in gigawatts or megawatts, describes how much power it can deliver at a given moment. But the duration — how long it can sustain that output — is equally important. A 1 GW system with only one hour of storage duration has very different capabilities than one with four or eight hours. The specific duration configurations for Google’s project have not been publicly detailed, and this variable will significantly affect both the cost and the practical utility of the installation. For a data center that needs power around the clock, longer-duration storage is far more valuable but also far more expensive.
Permitting, Siting, and the Regulatory Maze
Siting and permitting present additional challenges. Large battery installations require significant land area, proximity to electrical transmission infrastructure, and compliance with local, state, and federal regulations. Fire safety has become a particularly sensitive issue following several high-profile battery fire incidents at storage facilities, including fires at the Moss Landing site itself. Regulators and communities have become more cautious about approving new large-scale battery projects, and Google and EnergyVault will need to demonstrate that their installations meet the highest safety standards.
The phased, multi-site approach described in the framework agreement may help mitigate some of these risks by distributing the installations across different jurisdictions and reducing the concentration of risk at any single location. It also allows the companies to take advantage of regional incentives and grid conditions, siting batteries where they can provide the most value in terms of renewable energy integration and grid reliability.
What This Means for the Broader Energy Storage Market
If Google and EnergyVault execute on this agreement, the ripple effects across the energy storage industry could be profound. A single 1 GW contract from a blue-chip corporate buyer validates battery storage as a mainstream infrastructure asset class and could accelerate investment from other corporations, utilities, and financial institutions. It also puts pressure on battery manufacturers to scale production and on policymakers to streamline permitting processes for storage projects.
For EnergyVault, the deal provides a level of revenue visibility and credibility that few energy storage startups can claim. For Google, it represents a tangible step toward decarbonizing its operations at a time when the company’s energy consumption is growing faster than its ability to source clean power. And for the broader market, it raises a provocative question: if one technology company needs a gigawatt of battery storage to power its AI ambitions, how much will the industry as a whole require in the years ahead? The answer, by most estimates, is a staggering amount — and the race to build it has only just begun.
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