Hydrogen Power for Gigawatt Data Centers

In this interview, Yuval Bachar, co-founder and CEO of ECL, discusses ECL's next-generation sustainable data centers powered by hydrogen. ECL addresses the challenge of unreliable grid power and the growing demand for AI-driven data centers by offering an off-grid microgrid powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Their system eliminates diesel generators and UPS systems, making their operations zero-emission and water-positive, often contributing excess water to the community.
Bachar explains that ECL's modular data centers are built in one-megawatt blocks, which can scale up to large facilities, ensuring both high reliability and performance. These data centers achieve densities up to 6-8 times higher than traditional setups, and their cooling system is designed to handle high-performance racks of up to 125 kW, which will be available next year.
The primary energy source is hydrogen, fed in liquid or gaseous form, depending on site conditions. Bachar emphasizes that their solution is cost-competitive, with energy prices ranging from 5-12 cents per kWh when connected to a hydrogen pipeline, and higher when relying on delivered hydrogen.
ECL was founded in 2021 by Bachar and Rajesh Gopinath, with initial backing from Koch Industries and subsequent individual investors. The company is expanding globally, with active operations in the U.S., Japan, Singapore, and Europe, targeting hydrogen-powered data centers. Bachar highlights the importance of transitioning to green hydrogen and the company's patented technology for integrating solar power with hydrogen generation, ensuring reliability for large-scale data centers.Chapters
Highlights:
• ECL aims to provide next-generation sustainable data centers powered by off-grid microgrid systems based on hydrogen fuel cells.
• ECL’s primary power source is hydrogen, delivered in either liquid or gaseous form, depending on the site.
• ECL’s data centers produce zero emissions and are water-positive, often contributing excess water back to the community.
• ECL eliminates diesel generators and UPS systems from its data centers, offering a cleaner energy solution.
• ECL’s cooling systems can currently support 75kW per rack and will reach 125kW per rack in the near future, addressing AI-driven demands.
• ECL’s data centers are modular, built in 1-megawatt blocks that can be scaled up to accommodate larger needs.
• The solution can scale from small sites of 7-10 megawatts to larger ones by repeating the 1-megawatt block structure.
• ECL’s cost to build is significantly lower than the average data center in the U.S. and worldwide, making it competitive.
• ECL’s total cost of ownership (TCO) is highly competitive, especially when connected to hydrogen pipelines.
• Hydrogen prices for ECL’s energy range from 5 to 12 cents per kWh when connected to a hydrogen pipeline, and 30 to 45 cents with delivered hydrogen.
• There are about 1,600 miles of hydrogen pipelines in the U.S., concentrated in Texas, Louisiana, Chicago, and Ashburn, Virginia.
• Hydrogen production in the U.S. is mostly tied to industries like refineries and heavy metals, but ECL is repurposing it for clean energy.
• ECL uses hydrogen from natural gas with carbon capture (blue hydrogen) and aims to transition to green hydrogen.
• ECL blends green and blue hydrogen, calling it “turquoise hydrogen,” to ensure flexibility in sourcing while transitioning to 100% green hydrogen.
• ECL has patented technology that integrates data centers with solar power plants to produce on-site hydrogen and energy storage.
• ECL was founded in 2021 by Yuval Bachar and Rajesh Gopinath, who has extensive experience in the energy sector.
• ECL received initial funding from Koch Industries, through its subsidiary Molex, and later funding from individual investors.
• ECL is expanding internationally, with operations in Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the U.S., focusing on markets with hydrogen availability.
• Yuval Bachar was previously a principal architect at Microsoft Azure, working on AI platforms for self-healing data centers.
• Before founding ECL, Yuval led data center architecture at LinkedIn, developed the Open19 platform, and worked at Facebook and Cisco for several years.
Keywords
ECL, data centers, power source, hydrogen, microgrid, sustainability, high-performance, cost-effective, scalability