F E A T U R E
NICKEL-ZINC, NOT LEAD: EUROPE’ S NEXT RETROFIT STRATEGY
As EU regulations tighten and supply chain risk grows, Brandon Smith, VP of Global Sales and Product at ZincFive, highlights nickel-zinc as a turnkey retrofit alternative to brownfield valve regulated lead-acid( VRLA) deployments, delivering high-power performance, superior safety, longer service life, lower lifecycle emissions and simplified compliance within existing infrastructure.
For European data centre operators approaching VRLA replacement, battery selection is increasingly defined by regulatory, sustainability, supply chain and retrofit constraints within existing physical architectures, including open rack designs, particularly in brownfield environments where most capacity already exists.
Brownfield reality changes the equation
More than 70 % of global data centre capacity sits in existing facilities. In Europe, where permitting timelines are extended, grid access is constrained and sustainability targets are tightening, upgrading existing infrastructure has become the primary path forward.
Retrofits offer a clear economic advantage, often reducing project costs by 30 – 50 % while avoiding greenfield delays. However, those advantages depend on solutions that preserve the simplicity of replacement.
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