ECL is set to disrupt the data center industry by unveiling the world’s first data center to use hydrogen as its primary energy source. The breakthrough took place at its MV1 facility in Mountain View, California.
Additionally, the company secured an additional $10 million in funding, led by Hyperwise Ventures, to accelerate research and development and expand the company’s global footprint.
Data Center Innovation for AI
ECL’s data centers are designed to support the massive amount of computing power required for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. These facilities are ideal for companies looking to deliver AI applications or use AI to accelerate innovation and operations. Built to operate autonomously and off-grid, ECL’s data centers are the first in the industry to be fully sustainable, modular and purpose-built, with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.1 and high-density deployments of up to 75 kW per rack.
Features and Benefits
Efficiency and sustainability: Use hydrogen as the primary energy source, eliminating carbon emissions.
Flexibility and scalability: Can be expanded based on customer needs in 1 MW increments.
Rapid implementation time: Can be designed and delivered in less than 12 months, compared to the industry standard of two to three years.
Cooling innovations: Use water from hydrogen power generation and backdoor heat exchanger technology to cool high-density racks, eliminating reliance on local resources.
Advanced management: The ECL Lightning™ data center management system provides real-time monitoring and control, optimizing the performance of AI workloads.
Cato Digital, a sustainable cloud provider led by industry innovator Dean Nelson, is ECL’s first customer. Cato Digital provides dedicated GPU servers to platform partners, enterprises and retailers, ideal for inference engines, generative AI and continuous small language model (SLM) training. The company deploys NVIDIA DGX hardware configured at the highest possible density to take full advantage of the ECL design in MV1.
Founded in 2021 and led by Yuval Bachar, ECL has a team of data center industry veterans from leading technology companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Cisco, HPE and Bloom Energy. Yuval Bachar, a distinguished engineer and architect, holds eight US patents and is the founder of the Open19 project, which establishes a new open standard for servers.
According to Yuval Bachar, many data center providers have identified hydrogen as the energy source of the future due to its performance in safety, efficiency, reliability and sustainability. However, the high upfront costs associated with revamping existing facilities make the transition prohibitive for many operators. ECL has overcome these obstacles by adopting hydrogen and meeting the AI industry’s growing space, energy and cooling needs.
ECL sets a new standard in the design, development and delivery of hydrogen-powered data centers, providing a sustainable and efficient solution to the growing needs of the technology industry. With its innovative approach and commitment to sustainability, ECL is well-positioned to lead the future of data centers.