Hydrogen End Use – Data Centers
Hydrogen in Data Centers
The electricity demand of data centers has increased considerably in the past several years, especially today with rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications. Hyperscale data centers are facing power capacity challenges for power and cooling demand in order to avoid overheating, which is produced from the data centers themselves. One of the key factors in data center operation is having reliable, uninterrupted and resilient power for 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
According to McKinsey and Co. in 2023, US data center demand is expected to double by 2030, which will draw up to 21% of the world’s electricity supply by 20301.
In the event of any power outages, rolling blackouts, or electrical failures, data centers need backup power generators, which rely mostly on diesel fuel or natural gas for a period of 24 to 48 hours. However, the challenges between the decarbonization goal and growth in electricity demand, have forced data center owners to integrate clean energy technologies into their infrastructure development and operations. To optimize and accelerate the clean energy transition, data centers plan to implement additional sustainable solutions such as renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, fuel cells and hydrogen-powered gas turbines to meet their electricity demand. This energy transition will take time for technology improvement and requires a continuous source of fuel and large amounts of storage to provide constant and reliable power.
Hydrogen as an energy carrier can be used in data centers for power generation. Fuel cell and H2 powered gas turbines use hydrogen as their fuel and convert that to electricity. Different types of fuel cells are used in data centers. For example, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) run on multiple fuel sources such as hydrogen, biogas, and LNG, operate at a high temperature which results in a longer start-up time. Therefore, they are principally used for primary power generation. While proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) run only on hydrogen, operate at lower temperatures, and have a short start-up time, they are a strong solution for backup power generation to replace the diesel generators and reduce the carbon footprint. Recently, Microsoft announced a demonstration project that uses hydrogen PEM fuel cells to provide backup power for their data centers2.
Hydrogen-fueled gas turbines on the other hand can be used in two different applications. The first, as a flexible grid support for peak shaving, or when operating in island mode. The second application, when used as a base load, can provide firm power capacity on a continuous basis. In both cases, these turbines can operate on fuels with varying percentages of hydrogen content. In October 2023, Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine burned 100% green hydrogen in a demonstration project in France3.
Although hydrogen has the potential to be an ideal clean energy source for data centers, there are challenges and difficulties that must be addressed. If green hydrogen is generated by electrolysers on- site, there are considerable land and water requirements in addition to having large scale hydrogen storage systems. If the hydrogen is transported to the data centers there will also be limitations in gas and liquid hydrogen transportation, storage systems, as well as refueling. Furthermore, this approach requires significant hydrogen infrastructure and planning. These factors will impact the levelized cost of electricity for data centers as well as their capital expenditures. As technology advances and costs decrease, hydrogen could play a significant role in shaping the future of sustainable data center infrastructure.
Despite all the current short-term challenges, data centers have the opportunity to embrace the hydrogen economy and benefit from the long-term hydrogen development to reach their carbon free energy goals.
2. https://www.powermag.com/hydrogen-fuel-cell-provides-backup-power-for-microsoft-data-center/