Atos and HDF Energy announce a joint project to build a hydrogen-powered data center operational by 2023.
Atos and French firm HDF Energy are jointly developing a green hydrogen-powered datacentre to be put into production for the first time by 2023. Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced through renewably powered water electrolysis. Atos will design and provide the software, hardware, and integration services needed to enable the datacentre to operate using green hydrogen, while HDF Energy will contribute its expertise in creating green hydrogen power plants that can deliver a predictable, stable, and consistent supply of energy to the datacentre for resiliency purposes.
Central to Atos's role is the creation of a software layer that employs artificial intelligence tools to predict the server farm's power consumption requirements and manage the supply of green hydrogen being fed into it. "This complex process is not only based on the datacentre's activity and size, but also takes into account external data from the environment, such as weather forecasting," said Atos. The companies stated in a joint announcement that "This new solution from Atos and HDF will enable datacentre operators and cloud operators to anticipate potential future constraints set by regulation authorities and offer a sustainable but reliable solution to their customers, with no compromise on their business."
The initiative arrives amid heightened scrutiny of datacentre energy consumption habits, which has prompted major colocation providers to announce carbon emission reduction initiatives and renewable power investments over the past 18 months. Atos itself has set out plans to bolster the sustainability of its own datacentre estate, with the company claiming 55% of its datacentres are now powered by renewable power sources, and that power consumption fell by 15% year-on-year between 2019 and 2020.
Arnaud Bertrand, senior vice-president and head of strategy and innovation for big data and security at Atos, said: "We are constantly seeking to develop solutions to leverage our own sustainable journey towards decarbonisation and to support our clients in theirs. The solution to be developed by Atos and HDF will be the first available on the market that will enable a full production datacentre with very demanding workloads to be operated using green hydrogen. This meets the expectations not only of operators, but also of the market and public authorities."
HDF CEO Damien Havard described the project as resulting in a "first-of-its-kind green datacentre" and an important test of the company's hydrogen-energy concept. "It is very important for us to demonstrate that our hydrogen-to-power solutions are suitable for customers with a strategic need for a reliable electricity supply," he said. "This further development into the digital industry, where energy consumption is increasing every day, opens up a considerable worldwide market for us. The HDF-Atos partnership offers the first unique and sustainable infrastructure for this huge market."