Equinix announced that the Clean Hydrogen Partnership will contribute EUR 2.5 million to a project to develop low-carbon fuel cells to power data centers.
It is hoped that this will reduce carbon emissions from operations by up to 100%. The EcoEdge PrimePower (E2P2) project is a novel proof-of-concept initiative aimed at developing and demonstrating low environmental impact fuel cells that provide cost-effective and resilient prime power solutions for data centers.
Equinix, InfraPrime, RISE, Snam, SOLIDpower, TEC4FUELS, and Vertiv will collaborate to investigate an innovative integration of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC) with uninterruptible power supply (UPS) technology and lithium-ion batteries to provide resilient and clean primary power to data center deployments and other critical infrastructure. Implementing natural gas SOFC as a prime power application will help pave the way for the use of green hydrogen for fuel cell applications, both backup and prime power.
Equinix, the world’s digital infrastructure company with a forward-thinking sustainability strategy, has a long-term goal of becoming climate neutral globally by 2030 and achieving 100 percent renewable energy across its global footprint. The E2P2 project is part of the company’s effort to prioritize and support the development of clean, sustainable, and renewable power solutions for use across the data center industry, while also achieving its own lofty climate goals.
“The Office of the CTO at Equinix is chartered with driving the next-generation of technologies and architectures to advance the vision of Platform Equinix,” adds Justin Dustzadeh, Chief Technology Officer at Equinix. “A key component of our vision is to deliver our solutions whilst meeting our important sustainability commitments. The E2P2 project enables us to demonstrate a novel architecture for power generation, distribution and storage; support a broader transition from natural gas to sustainable hydrogen; and support our goal of operating a climate neutral business by 2030.”
Fuel cells are recognized as a cleaner and quieter power solution that can help urban power grids by reducing demand. They can be installed on-site at a data center campus and run on natural gas, biogas, LPG, or green hydrogen—all of which can be transported and distributed via existing gas networks.
The E2P2 project represents an exciting step toward significant carbon reduction while still meeting the needs of data centers for a highly resilient critical power supply. At the heart of this vision is a market-oriented approach that integrates innovation and stakeholder engagement to maximize the acceptance and uptake of stationary fuel cells as reliable, efficient, and decentralized prime power sources for other industrial scale applications.
The consortium’s goal is to create the authoritative open standard for fuel cell applications, paving the way for the commercialization of fuel cell energy for data centers in Europe and demonstrating the industry’s potential role in meeting EU carbon reduction targets.
