Two former SpaceX employees are betting that solar panels and batteries can meet the growing power needs of AI data centers more quickly and cheaply than traditional gas-fired generation.
Their startup, Ambrosia Energy, has emerged from stealth with plans to build scalable power plants that combine solar generation with lithium-ion battery storage.
Targeting around-the-clock power
Co-founder and president Sara Spangelo said Ambrosia aims to deliver electricity at roughly $100 per megawatt-hour.
“A power plant should be able to be built at any scale in 12 months from contract signing to power on,” Spangelo told TechCrunch.
“Our ambition is to go to gigawatt scale.”
The company has not developed a new battery chemistry. Instead, it is using existing technologies while redesigning how battery systems operate.
Slower battery cycling lowers costs
Most utility-scale batteries charge and discharge over two- or four-hour periods.
Ambrosia’s approach differs.
The company:
- Charges batteries gradually during the day.
- Releases power slowly overnight.
- Reduces stress on battery systems.
According to Ambrosia, those changes and other engineering adjustments have lowered system costs to about 1.5 times the price it pays for battery cells.
For comparison, financial advisory firm Lazard estimates that a new combined-cycle gas plant costs about $107 per megawatt-hour to build and operate.
Gas turbines also face waiting times of between five and seven years, according to the article.
“We’re also way more reliable than gas,” Spangelo said.
SpaceX roots
Spangelo and chief executive Ben Longmier previously worked on Starlink after SpaceX acquired their earlier company, Swarm.
Swarm operated a low-power satellite network for internet-of-things devices.
Before that:
- Spangelo worked at Google.
- Longmier worked at Apple and several space startups.
The founders initially financed Ambrosia themselves.
More recently, the company secured an investment from DFJ Growth, though Spangelo declined to disclose the amount.
First project underway
Ambrosia incorporated in December and began construction on its first power plant in West Texas in January.
“After this week, we’ll be almost halfway complete with that power plant,” Longmier said.
He added that sections of the project began operating six weeks ago and have run at full capacity since then.
Scaling up
The company said its systems can be connected to the electrical grid or deployed behind the meter.
Initial projects are expected to range between:
- 20 megawatts
- 30 megawatts
But the founders believe much larger developments are possible.
“We have a couple of partners where there’s access to like a million acres,” Longmier said.
According to the article, that amount of land could support a project producing roughly 30 gigawatts of power.
Ambrosia also plans to build a factory in Austin, Texas, to support larger deployments.
The company’s goal is to deliver “gigawatts by the end of the decade,” Spangelo said.
“We’re pretty ambitious.”
TL;DR
Former SpaceX engineers Sara Spangelo and Ben Longmier have launched Ambrosia Energy, which combines solar panels and batteries to provide continuous electricity. The company says it can build power plants faster and at lower cost than new natural gas facilities.
AI summary
- Ambrosia Energy was founded by former SpaceX employees.
- The company combines solar panels with lithium-ion batteries.
- It targets power costs of about $100 per megawatt-hour.
- Construction of its first project in West Texas began in January.
- Ambrosia aims to reach gigawatt-scale capacity by the end of the decade.
