by Jennifer Gangi

October 26, 2026

Data centers have become part of the ongoing energy conversation as the global demand for power and push to lead on Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to grow.

As communities, developers, utilities, and technology companies grapple with meeting both the infrastructure needs and the environmental impacts on the areas where data centers are being sited, fuel cells are continuing to emerge as the all-of-the-above solution.

FCHEA hosted a webinar in February, Powering America’s Digital Demand: How Fuel Cells can Support the Development of Data Centers, that provides a detailed overview of how manufacturers and developers are targeting data center opportunities, along with real-world insights on how fuel cell systems improve uptime, sustainability, and energy security.

Fuel cells have already proven themselves as a low-emission power option that are extremely efficient, reliable, and scalable as needs require.  They are fuel-flexible, run quietly, and use much less water than conventional methods of power generation. So while some communities are raising concerns on emissions, noise, and water use, fuel cells can mitigate those issues for data center developers.

In addition to saving water via normal operation, users can increase efficiency by capturing the byproduct heat and water fuel cells generate and use it to cool the data center servers, eliminating the need for a steam cycle or cooling towers, which use a lot of water.

Another key benefit that is warranting attention from developers is the extremely fast time-to-power compared to alternatives.  Bloom Energy says it can supply onsite power in as little as 90 days.  Fuel cells require a small footprint for the amount of power they produce and their clean operation helps either bypass or receive quick approval air permits.

U.S. Federal Support for Fuel Cells and Data Centers

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been a key partner with industry, working on research and development (R&D) and other projects that have achieved successes reducing fuel cell stack and system production costs, increasing durability and efficiency, and expanding commercial markets for fuel cells over the years. Under the Trump Administration, DOE has recognized how hydrogen and fuel cell technologies align with the Energy Dominance principles of the Trump Administration – Energy Addition, Energy Innovation, Grid Reliability/Security, and Agriculture/Domestic Fertilizer.

• • In October, FCHEA hosted “National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day: Powering the Path Forward,” a webinar with Dr. Valerie Reed, Director of DOE’s Alternative Fuel and Feedstocks Office (AFFO) who provided an overview of the agency’s priorities, including data centers, which are specifically listed as an area of focus under this Administration.
  • Fuel cells more than meet the challenge – boosting the reliability and efficiency of the grid, either operating in parallel through distributed generation, or in conjunction with it, as backup or an additional power source. DOE has outlined a goal of ~100 gigawatts (GW) of fuel flexible fuel cells in U.S. by 2050.

In the near term, there is a federal tax credit that can help reach that goal.  Last year, after a concerted effort by FCHEA, our members, and a bipartisan allied coalition, the fuel cell industry scored a tremendous win when the OBBBA restored eligibility for fuel cells to qualify for the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (ITC).  This reinstatement and adjustment now allows all fuel cells to be eligible for the full 30% ITC, regardless of fuel used or technology employed. The 48E remains in place in full through 2033, with a phase out to terminate the credit after 2035.   This credit restoration has significantly unlocked the ability for fuel cell manufacturers to take advantage of the data center and AI boom, resulting in billions of dollars of new deals, project announcements, and manufacturing expansions.

Since the ITC reinstatement, and our last blog posts on data centers (here and here), our members are continuing to secure significant investments from and partnerships with data center and energy infrastructure developers, as well as introducing new, scalable, and innovative fuel cell products that meet the current and future power needs.

Commercial Fuel Cell Developments with the Data Center Sector

Over the course of 2026, our members have been leading the charge to develop and deploy fuel cell technologies to support the rising power demands of data centers and artificial intelligence.

Bloom Energy

In the first half of 2026, Bloom Energy announced several major deals to finance and deploy its fuel cell systems in the data center space.

In June, the company’s financing framework with investment firm Brookfield was increased from $5 billion to $25 billion for AI infrastructure and hyperscaler power projects.

In April, Bloom expanded its partnership with Oracle, contracting 1.2 GW of fuel cell capacity in development now and the master agreement including up to 2.8 GW capacity to support Oracle’s U.S. power projects.  One of the planned installations currently underway is 2.45 MW of fuel cells for Oracle’s Project Jupiter in New Mexico.  Oracle is putting the water use and savings front and center in its conversations about the project, stating that approximately 960,000 gallons of water is required at start-up and then no water is required during normal operations.  On average over 15 years, the company claims the one-time fill and ongoing maintenance equate to the water usage of approximately 3 U.S. households per year.

Expanding its product offerings along with the market, Bloom introduced Power Connect in August, a new deployment system that pre-connected, pre-wired, tested and ready for installation, can reduce on-site power installation time by over 40%, helping customers bring new power capacity online faster and with greater schedule certainty.  Power Connect arrives which reduces on-site complexity, improves deployment consistency, and accelerates commissioning.

Also in August, Bloom expanded its partnership with MiTAC Computing Technology Corp., and will deploy a fuel cell microgrid at MiTAC’s AI server manufacturing campus in Fremont, California. The islanded microgrid builds on an existing Bloom installation at MiTAC’s San Jose, California, and will provide onsite power to support MiTAC’s current operations with ability to expand production as AI infrastructure demand grows.

Bloom also published its  2026 Data Center Power Report and The New Rules of AI Power, two new reports about the needs and challenges of the sector and how fuel cells can provide cost and emissions benefits while mitigating concerns about noise, water, and electricity prices.

In October, American Electric Power (AEP) announced plans to invest approximately $4 billion for a new 702-megawatt (MW) fuel cell generation project near Cheyenne, Wyoming, under a long-term 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Google. The facility will use Bloom’s fuel cells, with plans to integrate carbon capture technology.

FuelCell Energy

At the beginning of the year, FCHEA member FuelCell Energy and Sustainable Development Capital LLP entered into a strategic collaboration to explore the deployment of up to 450 MW of FuelCell Energy’s fuel cell systems for data centers and other mission critical distributed power needs.  In March, FuelCell Energy launched a 12.5 MW standardized packaged power block to meet the growing demand.  As sites develop and need more on-site power, the packaged system allows for faster scale-up and deployment.

In June, the company announced a strategic agreement to supply Fit Energy, an energy infrastructure company based in Florida, with up to 380 MW of fuel cells for data centers. An initial 30 MW is scheduled to begin delivery later this year.

FuelCell Energy President and CEO Jason Few wrote an op-ed in Data Center Dynamics, America’s AI race won’t be won by hitting pause on data centers, that explains how fuel cells can help build infrastructure faster, cleaner, and addresses community concerns about noise and water.  When paired with battery storage, fuel cells reduce reliance on constrained transmission and avoids shifting infrastructure costs onto other ratepayers

HyAxiom

In September, Korean fuel cell manufacturer Doosan Fuel Cell announced it signed a $372.5 million contract with its U.S. subsidiary and FCHEA member HyAxiom. Doosan will supply phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC) to HyAxiom to fulfill an order to deploy its fuel cells at AI data centers in the U.S.   This pipeline between the two companies helps speed up the process, with the fuel cell systems able to be installed within a year of signing a contract.

Renewable Innovations

Renewable Innovations, another FCHEA member, announced in October that it had joined “FC-DC: Fuel Cell Solutions for Brownfield and Greenfield Data Centers,” a three-year research collaboration led by DOE’s National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). Renewable Innovations will design, build and validate a fuel cell rack system that powers and cools a high-power compute rack directly on the data center floor. NLR will develop reference designs for retrofits and new builds, including 800 VDC power distribution, and the work includes a field demonstration at Sky Data Centers in Santa Rosa, California. Partners include NVIDIA, Energy Vault, DRG Technical Solutions, HPE Labs, Alderbuck Energy and Sky Data Centers.

Renewable Innovations also compiled an informative guest Catalyst blog post, Fueling the Data Center Fuel Cell, to accompany this blog that covers how much hydrogen a data center needs on site if it is deploying a system that uses hydrogen directly.  The article also delves into hydrogen delivery and storage needs and options.

Plug Power

FCHEA member Plug Power made two transactions in July with Stream US Data Centers, LLC, signing a definitive agreement to sell its Graham, Texas Project, comprised of land and associated 164 MW of grid interconnection assets, to Stream for up to $76.5 million, and its Gateway Project in New York for $142 million.

Ceres

In April, FCHEA member Ceres introduced the Ceres Endura™, the company’s flagship solid oxide stack platform specifically geared to provide scalable, on-site power to data centers and other energy intensive applications.  Ceres Endura™ operates at lower temperatures than typical solid oxide fuel cell systems, enabling its steel-supported architecture and is designed to be fuel flexible, using natural gas with ability to utilize hydrogen and other low carbon fuels in the future.

In March, Ceres announced a collaboration with UK energy company Centrica plc to accelerate the deployment of solid oxide on‑site power solutions in the UK and Europe. The partnership positions Ceres’ fuel cell technology as a fast, scalable high‑efficiency, fuel‑flexible on‑site power solution for AI data centers, and other critical commercial and industrial applications. Centrica is also exploring how Ceres’ solid oxide electrolysis cell technology could integrate with its AMR (Advanced Modular Reactor) program to generate nuclear‑enabled green hydrogen.  Centrica and Delta Electronics, Inc., a Taiwanese manufacturing partner of Ceres, also announced a partnership to further pursue the data center market and energy intensive industries in the UK and Europe.

Circling back to time-to-power, Ceres and Centrica recently published a report, Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Enabling Growth in a Power-Constrained World, that outlines how fuel cells can provide efficient, reliable, and scalable onsite power solutions, helping to businesses accelerate growth without waiting years for a connection to an over-saturated power grid.

PowerCell

In July, FCHEA member PowerCell Group announced two major deals with data center solution company EdgeCloudLink (ECL). The first was a $30 million order to supply its PS190 fuel cell systems for ECL’s FlexGrid microgrid at its AI data center campus in Santa Clara, California.

The companies also signed a separate non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for approximately 300 MW of additional hydrogen capacity to deploy industrial-grade hydrogen fuel cell power across ECL’s AI data center platform. The partnership is underpinned by PowerCell’s industrial partnership with fellow FCHEA member Bosch.

That partnership was reinforced further in October, when PowerCell and Bosch signed its own non-binding MOU for a joint initiative to develop and execute stationary power-generation projects with an output of at least 15 megawatts (MW), with a focus on the data center and utility markets.

As Demand Grows, Fuel Cell Systems Scale Up

These initial deals between fuel cell companies and energy project partners cumulatively add up to multi-GWs of deployments and tens of billions of dollars in investment, with no end in sight.

Product and project developments are happening quickly, as is the growing thirst for onsite power alongside intensifying pleas for more sustainable development that preserves and protects the surrounding neighborhoods, environment, and water sources.  Fuel cell companies are answering the call on all fronts.

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