Bharti Airtel’s Nxtra and Bloom Energy join forces for powering data center with fuel cell tech

Bharti Airtel ("Airtel") has announced that its subsidiary Nxtra Data Limited ("Nxtra") has partnered with Bloom Energy to deploy low environmental impact fuel cell installation at its data center in Karnataka, reducing carbon emissions through a cleaner, hydrogen-ready fuel supply.

Nxtra will be the first data center company in India to deploy fuel cell technology to reduce carbon emissions at its data centers while unlocking cost and sustainability benefits.

Nxtra plans to start the unit on non-combusted natural gas and then switch to 50% hydrogen in the future without any significant investment. The natural gas-powered cells will be used for the primary generation with a utility electrical grid and generators as backup sources.

Speaking about the partnership, Mr. Rajesh Tapadia, COO, Nxtra by Airtel said, "Nxtra is committed to set new benchmarks in sustainability for the data center industry and play a leading role as India emerges as the leading data center destination in APAC. With an ambition to reach net zero by 2031, we have embarked on our sustainability journey by making all possible efforts to adopt innovative energy solutions. Our partnership with Bloom Energy is a testament to our future-ready energy strategy to supply much cleaner energy to our data centers.

"Bloom Energy's technology is distinctly capable of helping India meet its decarbonization objectives as it transitions to a hydrogen economy," said Tim Schweikert, senior managing director, of international business development, Bloom Energy.

"We are proud to collaborate with Nxtra to support them in their pursuit of using clean, reliable, and affordable power for their data centers."