Microsoft data centre servers run on fuel cell backup power for 48 h

摘要

Microsoft has used a hydrogen fuel cell system to power a row of data centre servers for 48 consecutive hours, in a proof-of-concept backup power demonstration. The 250 kW PEM fuel cell system was built by Power Innovations, and tested at its Energy Innovation Lab near Salt Lake City, Utah. Microsoft Azure data centres, like at most cloud providers, currently use diesel powered generators to support continuous operations in the event of power outages and other service disruptions. The seed for using fuel cells for backup power was planted in 2018, when researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado - working with Power Innovations, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Daimler - powered a rack of servers with a PEM fuel cell originally developed for automotive applications [see the News Focus in FCB, December 2017, and also December 2019, p1].