(Mountain View, USA) – California-based Edge Cloud Link Inc. (ECL) plans to build a hydrogen-powered data center with a capacity of one gigawatt. The project, dubbed "TerraSite-TX1," is being built east of Houston, Texas, on a 600-hectare site and will operate as a "Data Center-as-a-Service" facility. According to the company, the first tenant will be AI specialist Lambda Inc.
ECL develops modular data centers in 1 MW blocks, called "ECL-MV1". © Edge Cloud Link Inc.
The first construction phase has an output of 50 megawatts and is scheduled to be completed in summer 2025. Investments amount to around 450 million dollars (403 million euros). The entire site will be gradually expanded to an output of one gigawatt. Total investment is estimated at eight billion dollars.
The site is specifically designed for the development and deployment of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and offers space for operators of data centers and AI clouds, for example. According to ECL, the "ECL-MV1" is the "world's first off-grid, hydrogen-powered modular data center that operates 10/1,05 with no emissions and minimal noise pollution." It offers "a 7-fold increase in energy efficiency" with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) value of XNUMX - a measure of efficiency for data centers - and "a XNUMX-fold improvement in data density per rack, which is ideal for high-density AI requirements."
Modular expandable to 2 GW
The supply of green hydrogen will be provided via three separate pipelines that converge at the site, so that no additional fuel transport is required. The initially planned output of one gigawatt can be modularly expanded in 1 MW steps up to two gigawatts, depending on customer demand.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the transmission system operator responsible for the interconnected grid in Texas, predicts that demands on the Texas power grid will double by 2030, which is "due in part to the growth of data centers and AI." "We want data centers, but it cannot be the Wild West of data centers and crypto miners that crash our grid and turn off the lights," ECL quoted an "X" post by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patric. Terrasite-TX1 was therefore specifically developed "to relieve the strain on the power grid while promoting the state's economic development and the growth of the AI industry," the company said.
"While others talk about delivering off-grid, hydrogen-powered data centers in five, 20 or XNUMX years, ECL is providing the AI industry with the space, power and security it and its customers need now," said Yuval Bachar. The ECL co-founder and CEO previously held senior engineering, infrastructure and architecture roles at Microsoft, LinkedIn, Facebook, Cisco and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), among others.
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ECL plans to build an off-grid hydrogen-powered data center near Houston and offers tenants "Data Center-as-a-Service". © Edge Cloud Link Inc.
