Hydrogen fuel cells may offer global telecoms an environmentally friendly solution to power energy-hungry remote networks. Telecoms run vast arrays of relay stations, data centers and other infrastructure that need reliable, constant power. Hydrogen fuel cells, invented in the 1800s and used in U.S. and Russian space programmes, can replace noisy, polluting diesel generators that sometimes run 24 hours a day, their proponents say. The cells are quiet, have few moving parts and only emit water. With the UN in August sounding “code red for humanity” over global warming, such power sources are attractive for a sector that accounts for 3% of global energy consumption.
Telecoms need generators that can quickly power up during electricity outages, and in remote locations they are often the sole power supply. Solar and wind, which do not always provide stable power levels, are not workable. Fuel cells strip electrons from hydrogen using a catalyst, combining the resulting gas with oxygen. This produces electricity, heat and water. But the technology still has barriers to overcome. The fuel is difficult to store, and little infrastructure is in place for transporting it long distances from where it is produced. The cost of hydrogen is also high: roughly 10 times as much as diesel in some markets. To produce the same amount of energy for the same cost, the price of hydrogen would have to fall to roughly twice that of diesel, according to U.S. government data.
Most hydrogen comes from fossil fuels and is called brown or blue hydrogen because it is not emissions-free. But more companies are investing in electrolysers powered by renewables to produce “green” hydrogen.