Europe: Companies plan new “Fuel cell-powered” data center in Ireland

SK Ecoplant and Lumcloon Energy are planning to create a new age data center in Ireland that will depend on gas-powered fuel cells rather than the regular grid connection. The  Irish development company and SK Group’s construction subsidiary signed this agreement this week during a trade mission to South Korea. 

 Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment Simon Coveney said, “Together they’re going to build Europe’s first fuel cell powered data center in Ireland, which I think is strategically very important because, of course, the energy that data centers use and the pressure that puts on the grid and the carbon footprint of data centers has been a source of a lot of political debate in the last number of years.”

He added, “If we can build data centers that are powered by fuel cell technology, initially gas, but in the future hydrogen, then that really does change the dynamic in that area, which I think is very exciting. And they’re very anxious to make this work and to show that Europe’s first fuel cell power data center can effectively become a template for many other data centers in the future.”