Powering the Future with Fuel Cells: A Deep Dive into On-Site Power Solutions for Data Centers

In today’s episode, Matt Vincent, Editor in Chief of Data Center Frontier is joined by Bala Naidu, Vice President – Energy Transition Solutions at Bloom Energy to discuss how the exponential growth of data centers in the United States is putting immense pressure on the power infrastructure. With traditional power sources struggling to keep up, data centers are facing a critical challenge: how to secure timely access to affordable power while adhering to sustainability and permitting regulations.

To address this issue, data centers are turning to on-site power generation solutions. Over 30% of new data center capacity is expected to rely on such solutions by 2030, with options including gas turbines, reciprocating engines, and fuel cells. The choice of power generation technology is influenced by a range of factors, such as air permitting, availability of equipment, space limitations, reliability needs, future energy transition considerations, and economic viability.

While reciprocating engines and gas turbines have been traditional choices, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are an increasingly attractive choice. Since the launch of Bloom Energy in 2001, SOFCs have rapidly advanced and are now the fastest technology to reach a 1 GW scale. The latest generation of SOFCs deliver high quality AC power in modular blocks at high efficiency and with minimal emissions. Today, fuel cells are already providing large-scale primary power for data centers, hospitals, manufacturing plants, and government facilities and are an ideal solution for 200-300 MW data centers. SOFCs can meet reliability requirements with minimal oversizing. The smaller unit size also permits these assets to be deployed at the scale needed as data halls are being built out.

With more than 35 GW of data center announcements expected in the next 5 years, utilization of SOFCs for onsite power challenges can accelerate DC deployments, providing a timely, scalable, reliable and sustainable power solution for this rapidly growing industry.

Download now to learn more!

Contact Bala on LinkedIn.