Fuel cells as a reliable source of energy for the data center?

Bloom Energy fuel cells in the new CenturyLink data center

Fuel cells, according to some companies, are one of the best options for providing vehicles or infrastructure with energy. One of the companies whose management agrees with this view is CenturyLink. This company is gradually expanding its data centers, and this requires energy. CenturyLink agreed with Bloom Energy on the purchase of a 500 kW power station, which allows it to generate energy on site.

The contract was announced back in 2013, and now the deal is closed: the data center has been expanded, and the power station in the fuel cells is owned by CenturyLink, providing electricity for new capacities. The total capacity of the new data center is 2 MW, while the fuel cells supply about a quarter of all this energy.

Bloom Energy - what is this company?

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Bloom Energy is far from new to the energy market. This company has been working for a long time, and during its work, management has achieved a number of successes, both purely technological and financial. Thus, the company's energy systems, based on fuel cells, have been delivered to partners for several years. The total capacity of sold power systems is 150 MW.


The company's customers and the fuel cell power stations provided by Bloom

Clients of the company, except Century Link, are FedEx, AT & T, Wal-Mart, Google, NASA, Verizon, Ikea, Staples and Coca-Cola. Quite significant customers. Why is growing interest in fuel cells?



As an explanation, one can cite the technical documentation of E-Bay , where fuel cells are recognized as a more reliable, more efficient and less environmentally harmful source of energy than standard ones. Perhaps this is really true, because it is not in vain that Apple deployed a 10 MW power system on fuel cells in its data center in North Carolina, USA.



According to specialists, the use of natural gas for energy may be the most inexpensive option. Thus, in the United States, the cost of natural gas is $ 3- $ 4, while the price of the received kilowatt-hour of energy is 2-4 cents. It is much cheaper than kilowatt-hours of energy from traditional sources (12.1 cents and above).

CenturyLink and data center with a new type of energy infrastructure

According to CenturyLink management, the company will be able to save significant funds if it uses fuel cells in its work. As mentioned above, natural gas is much cheaper than all other energy sources, therefore, the long-term operation of such sources saves considerable funds. This is even more relevant due to the fact that the state for fuel cells - preferential tax.

Now a new power station is part of a pilot project. CenturyLink has over 50 colocation data centers around the world. If the project is successful, the company will purchase additional fuel cell installations from Bloom.

Not so long ago, eBay was able to demonstrate the additional benefits of using fuel cells. So, in one of the data centers of this company, a new type of energy infrastructure was created. There are practically no UPS, generators and duplicates of the existing system. Energy systems have proven to be a very reliable source of energy, so eBay decided to conduct an experiment and abandon most of the costly elements of the energy infrastructure mentioned above.

Bloom is trusted not only by eBay and other tech corporations. This company recently received $ 50 million from the Superannuation Fund. Among the company's investors are KPCB, NEA, Advanced Equities, Goldman Sachs, DAG, GSV Capital, Apex Venture Partners, Mobius Venture Capital, Madrone Capital and SunBridge Partners. Is there a future for fuel cells?