The UK government says hydrogen is key to future energy supplies, even planning national subsidies to beef up production by the end of 2022. However, the embryonic hydrogen industry has not yet tackled the investment, sustainability and cost issues around data storage use cases.
Roberto Castaldini, the new-product-focused offering specialist at Vertiv, says the growing urgency of sustainability is driving hydrogen energy solutions for the datacentre, and incentivising investment.
“Usually datacentre and IT systems require consistent energy continuously, 24/7,” says Castaldini. “We then have a huge demand for batteries, for example, to support [intermittent] power from renewables. And there is the carbon footprint and other sustainability issues.”
Emerging hydrogen fuel-cell technologies offer potential for backup loads as well as off-grid or primary power that is…