Using fuel cells for emergency power supply

For the first time, Microsoft has powered a data centre with hydrogen in a test.

The idea: in future, fuel cells instead of diesel could drive the emergency generators of data centres. Microsoft initially wants to use hydrogen to secure the emergency power supply of its Azure data centres. There is still a long way to go, as fuel cells currently cover only around 1% of energy demand, but interest in carbon-neutral power generation is growing.

In a test, Microsoft powered a row of servers with hydrogen fuel cells for 48 hours, the company announced in a blog post. In the long term, fuel cells could replace the diesel-powered emergency generators that are still used in the company’s data centres. This is meant to help Microsoft reach the goal it announced in January of becoming carbon negative by 2030 at the latest.

According to Microsoft, however, the diesel generators account for less than one per cent of the company’s total emissions. “We run them once a month to make sure they work, and once a year we do a load test to make sure we can transfer the load to them correctly, but on average they bridge a power outage less than once a year,” explains Microsoft infrastructure expert Mark Monroe.

Microsoft also uses batteries to bridge the 30 seconds between a power failure and the start of the diesel generators. For longer periods, however, batteries are no longer particularly effective. That is why Microsoft began looking into fuel cells. “An automotive fuel cell has the same response time as a diesel generator. It can switch on quickly. It can be ready for full load within seconds. You can put it on the floor, turn it off and let it idle,” says Monroe.

Source: news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/hydrogen-datacenters/