Renewable Innovations Joins Fuel Cell Data Center Project
A three-year collaboration led by National Laboratory of the Rockies aims to develop fuel cell power systems for AI data centers.
Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Data Centers
Renewable Innovations has joined a three-year research project led by the National Laboratory of the Rockies to develop fuel cell power for AI data centers. The project, FC-DC: Fuel Cell Solutions for Brownfield and Greenfield Data Centers, was selected through the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office initiative.
Why it matters
AI is driving unprecedented growth in data center electricity demand, placing increasing pressure on traditional power infrastructure. The project explores fuel cells as a way to generate power closer to compute loads.
The project will design a fuel cell rack system to power and cool a high-power compute rack, building on a previously demonstrated 70 kW fuel cell integrated with cloud computing racks. Performance will be validated through digital real-time simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and transient testing, while the commercial viability of the architecture remains to be proven.
The players
National Laboratory of the Rockies
A U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that leads the FC-DC project and previously demonstrated a 70 kW fuel cell integrated with cloud computing racks at its Energy Systems Integration Facility.
Renewable Innovations
A company that will design, build and validate the fuel cell rack system for the project and has previously demonstrated fuel cells powering data centers.
NVIDIA
A major technology company that designs graphics processors widely used in AI computing and is part of the FC-DC project team.
The details
Renewable Innovations will design, build and validate a fuel cell rack system that moves power generation directly to the compute load, with the project team including NVIDIA, HPE Labs, Energy Vault and Sky Data Centers. The National Laboratory of the Rockies will develop reference designs for brownfield retrofits and greenfield facilities using 800 VDC power distribution.
Timeline
Renewable Innovations announced its participation in the project on November 2, 2026.
The FC-DC project runs over a three-year period.
Renewable Innovations first demonstrated fuel cells powering data centers seven years before this announcement.
The Tech Race
The FC-DC project builds on the 70 kW fuel cell demonstration at the National Laboratory of the Rockies' Energy Systems Integration Facility, moving the concept toward commercial reference designs. It places fuel cells within a broader industry effort to find power sources that can keep pace with AI-driven data center demand.
Data center operators evaluating power options may eventually have fuel cell architectures available as an alternative to conventional grid-supplied power. For most users, the practical effect will depend on whether the validated designs reach commercial deployment, which the project has not yet demonstrated.
The takeaway
Power is becoming a central constraint on AI infrastructure, and the FC-DC project shows how fuel cells could be designed directly into compute racks. Whether these designs become practical will depend on the results of testing and the planned Santa Rosa demonstration.
Further reading
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