Eolian breaks ground on Ohio’s largest battery storage project for AI data center hub
Eolian began construction on Flint Grid, a 200MW/1.06GWh Ohio battery energy storage project that will be the largest built to date in the PJM grid.
Photo by Budget Bizar on Pexels
Developer Eolian announced on July 29, 2026 that it has broken ground on Flint Grid, a 200-megawatt, 1.06-gigawatt-hour battery energy storage project in Jersey Township, Licking County, Ohio, according to the company’s release and reporting by Canary Media and Energy-Storage.News. The project will be the largest battery built to date in the 13-state PJM Interconnection grid and the largest east of the Mississippi River once complete, Eolian said.
Flint Grid sits inside the New Albany data center and industrial corridor east of Columbus, an area that has drawn Amazon Web Services and is host to a growing cluster of AI computing facilities, alongside a $28 billion computer-chip factory under construction by Intel, Canary Media reported. The battery will connect to a substation owned by utility AEP that feeds the region’s data center load, giving the project a direct path to both charge from and discharge onto the local grid.
What the Ohio battery energy storage project will deliver
The first phase of Flint Grid is scheduled to enter commercial operation by June 2027, delivering 200 megawatts of power for more than five hours at a stretch, equivalent to 1.06 gigawatt-hours of stored energy, according to Energy-Storage.News. Eolian plans to add a second phase of the same size by 2029, which would roughly double the site’s total storage capacity.
The system will charge when electricity is cheap and plentiful and discharge during periods of peak demand, the same strategy batteries have used for years in California and Texas, Canary Media reported. PJM, which manages the wholesale power market across 13 states and the District of Columbia, has struggled to bring new generation online even as data center demand grows, driving up capacity prices for consumers.
| Flint Grid project detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Location | Jersey Township, Licking County, Ohio |
| Power output | 200 MW |
| Duration | 5+ hours |
| Storage capacity (phase 1) | 1.06 GWh |
| Construction start | July 29, 2026 |
| Phase 1 commercial operation | By June 2027 |
| Phase 2 | Same size, targeted by 2029 |
| Developer | Eolian |
Flint Grid is the first large-scale battery energy storage system to qualify for PJM’s capacity market and the largest battery storage project to clear the 2027/28 Residual Capacity Auction, representing more than half of all new battery storage capacity awarded for that capacity year, Energy-Storage.News reported. It is also the first grid-scale battery permitted by the Ohio Power Siting Board.
“There are things that have been in progress for a long time, designed to solve these very problems,” Eolian CEO Aaron Zubaty told Canary Media, responding to concerns that the grid cannot keep pace with data center demand. Eolian began assembling land near Columbus roughly a decade ago after struggling to find space for solar development near northern Virginia’s data center hub, then bid Flint Grid into PJM’s capacity auction in December, which cleared at the maximum allowed price of $325 per megawatt-day, Energy-Storage.News reported, signalling that demand had outstripped supply in the market.
The project adds to a broader pattern of grid modernization actions that US states have taken to manage rising demand from data centers and electrification, and follows Winss’s earlier coverage of how grid-scale battery storage works and why utilities are turning to it. It also comes as US clean power capacity continues to expand, with solar and storage accounting for a growing share of new grid additions nationwide.
About Eolian
Eolian is a US clean energy developer that builds and operates grid-scale battery storage and renewable energy projects. The company began acquiring land near Columbus, Ohio roughly ten years ago after finding limited space for solar development near data centers in northern Virginia, according to CEO Aaron Zubaty’s account to Canary Media. Eolian secured permits, grid interconnection and Ohio Power Siting Board approval for the site before committing capital in 2025 to order long-lead-time equipment such as transformers, ahead of securing a customer contract. The Flint Grid project, now under construction, positions Eolian as the developer of the largest battery energy storage system built to date in both Ohio and the PJM grid.
Sources: PR Newswire (Eolian); Canary Media; Energy-Storage.News
Featured image: photo by Budget Bizar on Pexels (free Pexels license).
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
