Equinix trials green hydrogen fuel cell power at Dublin data centre

What happened

On 19 June 2026, Equinix announced a 12-week pilot at its DB3 data centre in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, running part of the facility on hydrogen fuel cells. The trial, conducted with Irish utility ESB and hydrogen power specialist GeoPura, uses two shipping-container-sized hydrogen power units to supply up to 0.5MW of continuous power. It is the first hydrogen power deployment across Equinix's portfolio of more than 280 data centres worldwide, and the company says no other data centre in Ireland is operating hydrogen power at this scale.

"This landmark research project could help solve Ireland's grid constraints and clean energy access challenges," said Peter Lantry, managing director of Equinix Ireland. Paul Lennon, ESB's head of asset development, framed the trial as testing "zero direct onsite-emission technologies" to support critical infrastructure as data demand grows.

The technology

The units use proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen electrochemically to produce electricity, with water and heat as the only by-products — no combustion, no NOx, no particulates. GeoPura supplies the hydrogen, produced from renewable sources, and its generation units are designed to be modular: the architecture deployed at DB3 can, according to the companies, scale to around 50MW.

Each unit pairs its fuel cell with 216kWh of integrated battery storage and delivers 250–500kW of continuous output. That combination is the significant part. At 0.5MW, the pilot is a fraction of a modern data centre's load; DB3 itself operates at a power usage effectiveness below 1.3.

But the units are positioned explicitly as an alternative to the diesel and gas generators data centres rely on for backup, and a containerised, zero-emission unit that can be multiplied towards 50MW is a plausible like-for-like replacement — for backup first, prime power later. Andrew Cunningham, GeoPura's chief executive, said hydrogen addresses operators' pressures on "reliable power, emissions reduction, and community impact".

Why it matters for UK & Ireland

Dublin is a sharp example of the collision between digital infrastructure and grid capacity. Equinix itself frames the trial against grid capacity constraints in the Dublin metropolitan area that are affecting digital infrastructure expansion; operators wanting to grow in Ireland must either wait for network reinforcement or bring their own clean firm power.

This trial tests the second option with the state utility as a partner, which signals ESB's interest in hydrogen as a system asset rather than a niche. The trial's stated objectives go beyond backup: the partners are testing grid peak-shaving, safety and commercial feasibility, and intend the data to inform policymakers and universities on deployment.

The result will be read closely in Britain too, where operators confront the same trilemma of reliability, emissions and local acceptability around diesel backup. A verified, containerised hydrogen alternative, even initially for backup rather than baseload, would give planners and operators on both islands a new variable. Precedent is thin: the closest comparison cited in coverage is a 48-hour hydrogen fuel cell demonstration by Microsoft and Caterpillar in Wyoming in 2024, which makes a 12-week continuous trial a longer test than most.

What to watch

The pilot runs for 12 weeks, so results should emerge in the autumn of 2026. The technical questions are the easy ones — availability, response, integration with the facility's power chain; PEM fuel cells are mature. The hard questions are economic and logistical. Green hydrogen remains expensive per kilowatt-hour compared with grid power or diesel, and supplying a 50MW facility would require a hydrogen logistics chain of production, transport and on-site storage that does not yet exist in Ireland at that scale.

Watch for three things: whether Equinix publishes cost and performance data from the trial; whether the partners announce a permanent or expanded deployment at DB3 or elsewhere; and whether ESB folds hydrogen power units into its wider plans for firm low-carbon capacity. A 0.5MW pilot proves function. The path to 50MW runs through the price of hydrogen.