This article was published by The Energy Mix on Nov. 13, 2025.
From Windsor to Denver and beyond, a new wave of battery breakthroughs show energy storage systems making headway in North America.
NextStar Energy recently announced that its Windsor lithium-ion battery plant will expand into commercial and grid-scale energy storage systems, reported CBC News. NextStar will supply both stationary storage and electric vehicle batteries to its joint venture partners LG Energy Solution and automaker Stellantis. To support the expansion, NextStar Energy has added a new chemistry to its production: lithium iron phosphate, also known as LFP batteries, the company said in a release. The two battery types are intended to complement each other and make the business more competitive.
Battery storage is expected to play a key role in Ontario’s plan to meet rising electricity demand. Earlier this year, a new facility in Windsor came online—the province’s second grid-connected battery storage project at the time, CBC reported.
Ontario Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce called NextStar’s move into stationary storage production a “powerful step forward” for Canada’s clean energy future, adding that building batteries “here at home” helps strengthen energy security and create good-paying jobs.
On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford was in the Eastern Ontario community of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal for the groundbreaking for Canada’s biggest energy storage facility, the Skyview 2 project developed by Potentia Renewables and the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation. He called the facility, which is scheduled to open in 2027, an example of how Ontario can get through Donald Trump’s trade war.
Elsewhere, battery chemistry itself is improving to overcome shortcomings and fire risks. Over the summer, Denver-based Peak Energy installed the United States’ first-ever sodium-ion battery, considered by some to be the most viable alternative to lithium-ion composition.
According to Canary Media, Peak’s batteries “can withstand a much broader range of temperatures, from -20°C to 45°C,” so their engineers dispensed with the usual battery cooling systems. That avoids up to 90% of the auxiliary power the units would need to maintain safe operating conditions and allows the use of simpler infrastructure.
In Massachusetts, start-up Form Energy will finally be deploying its iron oxide batteries, which employ a reverse-rusting process to store and release electricity more safely than other battery types. After a long process of developing the technology and building up manufacturing capacity, Form’s first 100 batteries are destined for installation at Great River Energy’s multi-day storage project in Minnesota, set to be operational next year, reports Latitude Media.
Demand for Form’s batteries has spiked in recent years. Utilities are current customers, but artificial intelligence data centres have increased the company’s sales funnel, CEO Mateo Jaramillo told Latitude Media. New deals, soon to be announced, will require the company to scale up capacity.
But Form won’t be the first battery storage company to service a data centre. That distinction goes to energy storage specialist Calibrant Energy, which is supply a battery for an Aligned Data Centre facility in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Canary Media reported that the deal will help the data centre start operations years ahead of what would be possible through traditional utility upgrades. With Aligned footing the bill, costs will not be passed along to ratepayers, unlike other arrangements that rely on utilities upgrading to accommodate data centres.
Canary Media wrote that if the plan goes through, “would-be AI leaders will be jumping all over this battery-first strategy.”
However, The Energy Mix has reported that hyper-inflated investments into data centres and power infrastructure may be creating an “AI bubble” that could burst and wreak economic havoc.
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