Comtec Enterprises has backed up itsdatacentre power supplywith
ahydrogen
fuel cellto save on space, eradicate downtime
and reduce its carbon footprint.
The company, which supplies technology products and services and
hosts customer applications, finalised the building of its new
datacentre, which houses up to 1024 servers, in June and purchased
an APC hydrogen fuel cell for about £60,000 to provide power
back-up.
This is only the third such APC product implemented in a
datacentre to be deployed in the UK, with Kensington based
financial services company Winton Capital Management and technology
company UPS Systems the other two users.
Nick Claxson, managing director at the company said he opted for
this because there was insufficient space for a diesel generator
outside the building and he wanted to increase the company's green
corporate credentials.
"It sits inside the datacentre and the emissions are no more
than a few drops of water," said Claxson.
The fuel cell starts working as soon as there is a power outage
unlike a diesel generator that can take some time, added
Claxson.
Comtec buys its hydrogen from
BOC and stores enough in canisters outside the datacentre to
keep it running until re-supply can be made, in the event of a
power cut.
Paul Tyer, managing director for UK and Ireland at APC, said the
adoption hydrogen fuel cell technology is still in its infancy and
is still an expensive method of backing up power supplies. "But
costs will come down as the adoption scales up," he said.
"Today companies that could benefit from this are those with
planning constraints and those that have a strong environmental
policy and want to be seen to have corporate responsibility," he
said.