A three-year pilot project is underway to test hydrogen fuel cells as a backup power source in a large data centre owned by technology firm Microsoft.

The project is being run by Microsoft in conjunction with fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power Systems and equipment firm Caterpillar, and is Ballard’s first for a data centre.

Caterpillar will supply expertise in advanced power technologies, controls and system integration, while Ballard will provide the fuel cells.  

The project will use proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) fuel cells, which are able to start and stop operating quickly.

Fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy’s solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs)—which operate at a higher temperature—currently dominate in the data centre market, being used by technology companies Apple, eBay and AT&T.

$3/kg – Level of hydrogen production tax credit in US

The hydrogen to be used for the project will have a “low carbon intensity”, according to Kate Charlton, vice-president of investor relations at Ballard, although she did not specify whether the hydrogen would be blue or green. The hydrogen supplier for the project and the timeframe for delivery have also not been released.

Charlton noted that the US’ production tax credit, which is part of the stalled Build Back Better legislation and offers up to $3/kg of hydrogen, will help improve the economic competitiveness of hydrogen fuel cell technologies relative to the incumbent diesel technologies in place today.

The project is supported and partially funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) under the H2@Scale initiative and backed by the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Colorado. NREL is performing analyses on safety, economics and greenhouse gas impacts.

“We continue to invest in research and advanced development in hydrogen fuel cells as one of the various pathways toward our commitment to be carbon-negative by 2030,” says Christian Belady, vice-president of advanced development, cloud operations and innovation at Microsoft.

Replacing diesel

Data centres are energy intensive and always operational. In the US, they usually have backup power on standby sourced from a diesel generator.

Permitting of diesel generators at the scale needed for a data centre has become difficult given the impact on air quality, Microsoft engineer Mark Monroe, said during a presentation to the DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical Advisory Committee.

Fuel cells can also store surplus energy from renewable resources that are co-located next to many data centres, according to Bryan Pivovar, a senior research fellow in hydrogen at NREL. Diesel generators are unable to do this. 

“[They] can buffer wind and solar resources that are variable,” he says.

He added that low operating temperatures mean a PEM system can start up and shut down without the same challenges as a SOFC system—although the latter has some potential efficiency advantages and also generates higher-quality heat that could offer other benefits.

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Author: Ros Davidson