South Korea's SK ecoplant is providing fuel cells to Chinese data center provider GDS.
Part of South Korea's SK Group, SK ecoplant has announced a plan to provide the Chinese data center giant with eco-friendly power supply solutions based on fuel cells. Under a collaboration agreement, SK ecoplant said it would provide eco-friendly power supply solutions including the supply of fuel cells and engineering, procurement, and construction. GDS is responsible for operating data centers.
SK ecoplant is a construction firm that has been making steps into environmental products. It is an established reseller of Bloom Energy's solid oxide fuel cell systems in Southeast Asia.
Under the agreement, SK ecoplant will provide power supplies to GDS, to provide a stable and uninterrupted power source for its data centers.
SK ecoplant also builds data centers, and recently announced a deal with Digital Edge to develop a 120MW data center in Incheon, South Korea.
The GDS deal is part of SK ecoplant's efforts to promote eco-friendly data center power: nurture a data center power supply solution as a new business model. "Our strategic cooperation with GDS, the No. 1 data center company in China, will be the cornerstone for expanding the scope of our fuel cell business and pioneering overseas markets," SK ecoplant CEO Park Kyung-il said in a statement.
The company also recently bought Singapore-based eWaste & IT asset disposal (ITAD) firm TES for around $1 billion, and has become a major waste management company. The company is involved in recycling discarded electrical and electronic devices such as waste electric vehicle batteries.
SK ecoplant also hopes to join the loop in the emerging hydrogen economy. It is part of a Korean project to source green hydrogen from organic waste, and is also working with Bloom to produce green hydrogen from a solid oxide electrolyzer.
GDS, founded in 2006, operates dozens of data centers across Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Hong Kong. It is also developing facilities at YTL's new campus as well as the Nusajaya Tech Park, both in Johor, Malaysia.
