NorthC and green hydrogen

NorthC's data center in Groningen is to be the first in Europe to use green hydrogen fuel cells (H2), created through electrolysis. According to the company, the 1.5MW facility will have 500kW of fuel cells. This will reportedly save tens of thousands of liters of diesel a year, the equivalent of 78,000 kilos (78 tons) of CO2.

Jarno Bloem, COO at NorthC Datacenters, says: "The data center industry has a responsibility to ensure that we operate as sustainably as possible. An important next step is to switch from emergency power generators that run on diesel to sustainable alternatives. We believe that green hydrogen offers the best possibilities in this respect and have therefore entered into a partnership with Nedstack – one of the frontrunners in the field of large hydrogen cells."

According to Bloem, the company also intends to investigate if it can apply this technology to its other data centers, too. He outlined that the "ultimate goal" is to use green hydrogen as a primary power supply, but that this is something that will be developed in the future. Likewise, Bloem highlighted that the cost of hydrogen is more expensive than diesel, but that this will drop as the market grows: "This requires subsidies and an increase in scale. But given the enormous advantages that this form of energy offers, I am convinced that it is just a matter of time," he said.