Bremner Churchill of AlumaPower, winner of the Power Inside Data Centers category at the 2026 Data Center World Innovation Challenge powered by ABB.

AlumaPower is developing a next-generation backup power platform that uses solid aluminium as a fuel source to generate clean, dispatchable electricity for data centers. Dubbed its Galvanic Generator, the platform builds from long-established aluminum-air battery technology but overcoming many of the limitations that made that tech impractical.

AlumaPower’s platform converts scrap aluminium into energy through an electrochemical process, delivering power that can operate as both backup and active grid-support infrastructure. Unlike diesel generators, which are typically restricted to emergency use, the system is designed to provide continuous operational flexibility and support data centers’ participation in broader energy markets.

For decades, backup power occupied a relatively simple role inside data centers. Generators sat quietly in the background, designed for the rare event when the grid failed. They were critical but rarely used.

As AI workloads reshape the economics and architecture of digital infrastructure, data center operators are looking for backup systems that can be tapped for more flexible, on-demand power.

With its promise to support that shift, AlumaPower won the Power Inside Data Centers category at the 2026 Data Center World Innovation Challenge powered by ABB.

The Innovation Challenge brought together 24 startups to pitch their data center innovations Shark Tank-style to a panel of industry judges, with winners selected across multiple categories for their potential impact on next-generation infrastructure.

Backup Power Is Becoming Core Infrastructure

For the AlumaPower team, the industry’s growing power challenge is exposing a weakness in how backup systems have traditionally been designed.

“The core failure in today’s approach is treating backup power as separate from primary infrastructure when it’s often the only firm power asset on-site,” says Bremner Churchill, Director of Growth and Strategy at AlumaPower.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important as AI transforms the way data centers consume electricity.

Beyond the amount of power AI workloads demand, they also alter the shape of power consumption, creating environments that are more power-dense and less predictable.

“You move from relatively steady-state cloud computing loads to much more dynamic demand profiles,” Churchill says. “That stresses both grid capacity and on-site power architectures.”

Instead of backup systems meeting only short-duration power outages, operators are increasingly planning for those assets to help manage constrained grid capacity, support fluctuating AI workloads, and operate for longer periods when grid power is limited. That is precisely the role AlumaPower has designed its platform to fill: a power system that can provide emergency resilience while also delivering everyday operational value.

How AlumaPower’s Technology Works

At the heart of AlumaPower’s platform is its Galvanic Generator, which produces electricity through an electrochemical reaction rather than combustion. Aluminium plates act as the fuel, reacting with oxygen from ambient air inside an alkaline electrolyte to generate electricity. Because the process contains no combustion, it produces electricity without particulate emissions, nitrogen oxides, or carbon dioxide associated with diesel generators, while operating quietly and with fewer moving parts.

Unlike conventional batteries, the aluminium itself stores the energy. Once consumed, the aluminium can be replaced and the resulting aluminium hydroxide byproduct can be recycled back into new aluminium using established industrial recycling processes, creating a circular fuel cycle. The modular architecture allows systems to be scaled from individual power modules to larger site deployments, giving operators flexibility to match capacity with demand while using globally available aluminium as a safe, energy-dense fuel source.

The Pressure Points: Power, Regulation, and Economics

As Churchill talks with data center operators about AlumaPower tech, three themes consistently dominate the conversations: access to power, regulatory acceptance of new power technology, and long-term economics.

“There’s a growing realization that traditional solutions may satisfy reliability requirements, but they don’t necessarily work economically or from a regulatory perspective at hyperscale,” he says.

Those concerns directly shape AlumaPower’s technology. Because its system does not rely on combustion, it has the potential to avoid some of the permitting and emissions challenges associated with diesel generators, while its ability to operate beyond emergency backup creates additional economic value throughout the asset’s lifetime.

The company’s approach centers on three principles: unrestricted operational availability, fuel designed as infrastructure, and the ability to generate value beyond emergency backup.

Aluminium, Churchill notes, offers several characteristics that align with those goals. “It’s safe, globally transportable using existing logistics networks, and stores energy indefinitely,” he says.

Engineering for Reliability at Data Center Standards

Developing new technologies for critical infrastructure environments such as a data center presents significant challenges.

While the underlying science is established, the AlumaPower team is increasingly focused on proving reliability and integration within highly risk-averse operating environments.

“Data centers operate under very rigorous design principles,” he says. “You have to demonstrate predictability, reliability, and full integration at scale.”

AlumaPower’s modular architecture helps in that validation phase. Since the same tech can scale from individual power modules to larger generator stacks and ultimately site-wide deployments, operators can validate reliability incrementally, reducing deployment risk.

Power as the New Design Constraint

As AI demand accelerates, Churchill believes the industry is approaching a point where power systems themselves require rethinking.

Grid infrastructure, permitting timelines, supply chains, and energy delivery systems all represent bottlenecks that are becoming increasingly difficult to overcome at the speed AI development demands.

“We’re not running out of demand for AI,” Churchill says. “We’re running into the limits of how we produce, move, and deploy energy at scale.”

For AlumaPower, this is where its technology is intended to make the biggest impact. By providing dispatchable, modular power that can operate beyond emergency backup, the company aims to help data center operators unlock additional compute capacity without waiting for major grid upgrades or relying solely on diesel-based resilience. Rather than replacing the grid, the system is designed to make existing power infrastructure more flexible, resilient and economically productive.

One thing, however, remains unchanged. Reliability remains the ultimate test for any energy technology.

“No matter how infrastructure evolves,” Churchill says, “the tolerance for failure is still zero.”