Spotlight on Success: First Megawatt-Scale Demonstration of Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Data Center Backup Power

Earlier this year, Caterpillar Inc. announced successful completion of a first-of-a-kind collaboration with Microsoft and Ballard Power Systems to demonstrate the viability of using large-format hydrogen fuel cells to supply reliable and sustainable backup power for data centers. 

The demonstration, hosted at Microsoft's Cheyenne, Wyoming, data center, simulated a 48-hour power outage, providing critical insights into the capabilities of fuel cell systems to power multi-megawatt data centers, ensuring uninterrupted power supply to meet 99.999% uptime requirements.

Caterpillar served as project lead, providing overall system integration, power electronics, and microgrid controls that form the central structure of the hydrogen power solution. Hardware for the demonstration included two Caterpillar power grid stabilization storage systems alongside a 1.5-MW hydrogen fuel cell supplied by Ballard Power Systems. Over the course of the project, researchers evaluated the cost and performance of the fuel cell system including analysis of key performance characteristics such as power transfer time and load acceptance.

Launched in 2020 and completed this year, the project was supported and partially funded by DOE under the H2@Scale initiative, which brings stakeholders together to advance affordable hydrogen production, transport, storage, and utilization in multiple energy sectors. During the demonstration, researchers at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analyzed safety, techno-economics, and greenhouse gas impacts.