Sustainable Energy Solution for a Clean Future

Data centers are getting larger as cloud services become more popular, with 100 MW as the new standard (enough to power 16,400 average US homes). Current power comes from the electric grid which is powered by unsustainable fossil fuels that produce pollutant emissions.

Photovoltaic solar panels and wind turbines can power data centers cleanly and renewably, but the power is not constant due to sun and wind variances. Electrolysis converts excess electrical energy into hydrogen. The hydrogen later powers fuel cells when renewable energy production is low. Fuel cells convert hydrogen chemical potential energy directly into electrical energy, leading to high efficiency, clean emissions, fuel flexibility, and reliability.

Goal and Objectives

We will improve the energy efficiency and sustainability, reduce pollutant emissions, and eliminate energy grid reliance of data centers using fuel cells, clean renewable energy, and energy storage.

Objectives:
1) Design a 100 MW data center that runs on hydrogen and renewable energy

2) Integrate wind and solar power with a power-to-gas energy storage system to ensure clean, renewable energy is always available

3) Design and build a single server system as a scale model

The Bigger Picture

Most of the energy that is distributed through the electricity grid comes from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. There is only a limited amount of fossil fuels on this planet, and using them emits pollutants. Because data centers consume so much power, powering them emits many pollutants.

To reduce the impact on the environment from data centers, we will use clean, renewable resources. Each individual renewable resource is not going to provide enough power to run the data center, so we are using a combination of multiple resources along with fuel cells to directly power the data center. For a company to utilize this technology, there will be a large upfront cost; however, this solution is much cheaper in the long term because power is continually generated from the environment. Depending on the type of renewable power used, the system may require a vast amount of land. As technology improves and efficiencies become higher, the amount of land required will shrink proportionately.

One of the main advantages of our system is it is not limited to use for data centers. The same principles can also be used in other applications such as shopping centers, sports arenas, and housing communities. The end product is an independent, clean, renewable power generation system that can be scaled to any required size.

Innovation

Our project utilizes a combination of solar power, wind power, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, and energy storage using an electrolyzer. The innovation of our project is combining all of these to create an independent power generation system. Electricity will be generated from solar panels and wind turbines to directly power the data center servers. When excess electricity is generated, an electrolyzer will produce hydrogen to store in pressurized tanks to be used in the case that there is not enough power production from the sun and wind. The fuel cells will run off the stored hydrogen, creating a system that can provide power to the server racks continually. Batteries will be used in conjunction with the fuel cells to provide a faster response for the servers.