Sustainable Development Capital (SDCL) and FuelCell Energy have announced a strategic collaboration to explore deploying up to 450 MW of FuelCell Energy fuel-cell power systems to support data center growth and other mission-critical distributed power needs globally. The companies say the effort is driven by changing data center power requirements tied to artificial intelligence workloads, including the need for highly reliable, scalable, resilient on-site generation.
The companies said they have executed a letter of intent to work together, combining FuelCell Energy’s distributed baseload generation technology with SDCL’s experience financing and operating scalable energy infrastructure. The collaboration will evaluate on-site or behind-the-meter power as an option alongside traditional grid supply, citing delivery timelines, grid constraints, and decarbonization goals as factors shaping data center power planning.
FuelCell Energy says its platform “natively generates continuous, megawatt-scale direct DC power behind the meter,” with deployments “today through AC-coupled systems” and “architecturally ready for 800-volt DC designs.” “With clear cost, efficiency and power density advantages, the industry is moving toward centralized, 800-volt DC power for data centers,” said Jason Few, President and Chief Executive Officer of FuelCell Energy. “FuelCell Energy natively generates continuous, megawatt-scale direct DC power behind the meter, delivered today through AC-coupled systems and architecturally ready for 800-volt DC designs.”
FuelCell Energy also states its systems are designed to deliver continuous on-site power and can operate independently of the electricity grid during normal running, subject to reliable fuel supply and any site-specific backup and start-up arrangements. The company says the systems are designed to minimize local air pollutants typically associated with combustion-based generation, including nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), and particulate matter (PM), with performance dependent on configuration, operating conditions, and fuel type.
FuelCell Energy says the platform can also enable productive use of thermal energy, including capturing waste heat for absorption chilling to reduce overall electrical load and “may improve data center efficiency, including Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE),” said Few. “In addition, our platform can facilitate the productive use of thermal energy where waste heat is captured and used for applications such as absorption chilling, reducing overall electrical load and may improve data center efficiency, including Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).”
Source: FuelCell Energy
