Why fuel cells are key for energy-intensive data centres

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Why fuel cells are key for energy-intensive data centres

The world we live in is becoming an increasingly digital place. With the rise of remote working, digitalisation and automation across almost everything we do, more and more critical systems are moving online.

Powering these internet services requires gigantic, hyper-scale data centres which are predicted to use up to 98.52 TWh by 2030. With higher demand for online services and the availability of 5G, plus mounting social and governmental pressure, big tech companies particularly are looking for ways to reduce energy consumption.

While diesel-powered backup generators have long been the most reliable solution for powering safety- and mission-critical energy systems, at Rolls-Royce, enabling the use of alternative and renewable fuels is the crucial next step.

Reducing emissions in power generation

We have different ways of reducing emissions from diesel gensets,” explains Tobias Bertler, Senior Manager Direct Sales at Rolls-Royce Power Systems. “We continue to work on reducing exhaust emissions through internal engine measures and we offer exhaust gas after-treatment systems.

“But we see it as important to expand renewable energies and Power-to-X technologies, making alternative fuels available, preparing combustion engines for alternative fuels, and developing alternative energy and propulsion systems. We see great potential in hydrogen as a fuel. Accordingly, we are expanding our portfolio to include fuel cells and are currently testing hydrogen engines for energy supply.”

What is a fuel cell?

Fuel cells work by converting the chemical energy of fuels like hydrogen with an oxidising agent to produce electricity, allowing for the reduction of both pollutant and climate-damaging gas emissions to zero.

Alongside the environmental advantages, fuel cells are modular, low maintenance and therefore easily integrated and adapted to match output with demand. This makes them a highly reliable, scalable and future-proof solution for data centres.

In the future, fuel cells could be the perfect complement to the backup gensets that store energy from public power grids and compensate for fluctuations in frequency and voltage. Something that can increase with the introduction of renewable energies.

Climate neutral power supply - through fuel cell technology

The future of renewable energy

In the future, increased demand for renewable energies from sources like solar and wind power plants could begin to cover the basic power requirements of data centres instead of the public power grid. If sufficient green electricity is available, hydrogen could be produced from water by electrolysis and stored on site. In addition, hydrogen and fuel cells could then have a bigger part to play in maintaining operations at data centres in the event of a power failure.

At Rolls-Royce, we're developing and testing complete mtu hydrogen fuel cell solutions based on technology from cellcentric at our facility in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The fuel cell modules emit nothing but water vapour, enabling C02-free, climate-neutral power generation for data centres and other mission-critical applications.

After successful demonstrations in 2021 and 2022, our plan is to bring our first pilot plants to customers by next year with standard production fuel cell systems launched by 2025.