Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has teamed up with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) with the goal of creating a hydrogen-powered data center that is high-performing, extemely reliable, and energy efiicient. This data center is enabling researchers and high performance computing (HPC) users to achieve sustainable new levels of compute power and driving unmatched progress in supercomputing energy efficiency.
Fuel cells convert chemical energy (hydrogen gas and oxygen) into electrical energy using a process that produces significantly fewer carbon emissions than standard fuel-burning technologies, which allows facilities to generate their own power on-site and eliminates the inefficiencies associated with transporting energy over long distances.
The NREL and a network of partners—including HPE, Intel, Daimler, and Power Innovations—are currently working on a proof-of-concept demonstration that uses a hydrogen fuel cell to provide power to the lab’s data center. The 65-kilowatt automotive hydrogen fuel cell is fed by the NREL’s renewably-generated hydrogen and will provide high-voltage, DC power directly to two to three racks of HPC equipment provided by HPE and Intel.
HPE is working tirelessly to drive advancements in energy efficiency research, improve power efficiency in both new and existing system designs, and continue to actively research, develop, and test new solutions that will not only dramatically improve the energy efficiency of modern supercomputers, but also help usher in the next generation of HPC solutions.
