Photo Credit: ECL
Last week, California-based data center developer ECL announced that its off-grid hydrogen-powered 1GW artificial intelligence (AI) data center, TerraSite-TX1, will be developed and built in Houston, Texas.
The $8 billion project, funded by ECL and financial partners, will be delivered in multiple phases. The initial phase of 50 MW is expected to come online in the summer of 2025 for AI cloud provider Lambda at approximately $450 million. Given customer demand, the facility could be scaled up to two GW in the future.
ECL intends to run phase one using half grey hydrogen and half blue hydrogen with the target of 80% blue hydrogen and 20% green hydrogen the following year. The roughly 600-acre data center will be strategically supplied by three separate pipelines for the different types of hydrogen converging on site.
What does a clean and renewable hydrogen-powered data center look like?
The off-grid hydrogen-powered data center will power AI workloads using hydrogen fuel stacks to generate electricity, battery storage, and cooling. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, produces energy through a chemical reaction that emits only water vapor. Traditional grid-connected data centers use high water levels for cooling and other purposes. In contrast, ECL’s design is water-free, producing fresh water as a byproduct for cooling and other purposes. The green hydrogen, generated by electrolysis, will be stored in gaseous form and used to charge batteries.
According to ECL CEO Yuval Bachar, ECL plans to harness solar power to overcome data center siting limitations imposed by the limits of the hydrogen transportation infrastructure. In an arrangement Bachar labeled “behind the meter, over the fence,” an ECL hydrogen-powered data center is strategically placed next to a large photovoltaic plant, often overproducing at certain times of day and in curtailment or selling at low rates. Through this strategy, the data center remains powered by hydrogen using inexpensive electricity generated from renewable energy off the grid.
Benefits of Hydrogen-Powered Data Centers
Earlier this summer, ECL inaugurated its first hydrogen-powered data center pilot, ECL-MV1, in Mountain View, California. This pilot project, now in full production, demonstrates several key benefits of using clean and renewable hydrogen to power data centers:
- Environmental: Clean and renewable hydrogen offers a low-to-zero-emissions alternative to fossil fuels. The project also creates minimal noise and a negative water footprint and replenishes excess water in its local community.
- Reliability: Operating 24/7, hydrogen fuel cells work continuously, ensuring uninterrupted power for data centers, which require constant uptime. ECL states that its off-grid systems will be critical as power demand increases from data centers and AI.
- Scalability: The firm states that it can deliver its hydrogen-powered modular systems in under a year, compared to three and four years for conventional grid-connected data centers.
Scaling Clean and Renewable Hydrogen for Energy-Intensive Data Centers
Electricity consumption from data centers, AI, and cryptocurrency could double by 2026, according to a 2024 International Energy Agency report. In addition, the Texas project comes at a critical time, with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) testifying on June 12 this year that the state’s power grid needs will double by 2030 due in part to the growth of data centers and AI.
These off-grid hydrogen-powered data centers highlight the critical role clean and renewable hydrogen can play in meeting rising energy needs, such as power-hungry data centers while offering a clean alternative to fossil fuels..
