ECL and PowerCell announced a firm purchase order for hydrogen fuel-cell systems at ECL's planned 35MW Santa Clara campus, plus a non-binding MoU for ~300MW more — but CSC-1's "FlexGrid" architecture burns natural gas too, and no environmental filings support the company's zero-emission claims.

ECL and Swedish fuel-cell maker PowerCell Group announced in July a commercial hydrogen partnership anchored by a firm purchase order for PowerCell PS190 fuel-cell systems destined for ECL's planned 35-megawatt CSC-1 campus in Santa Clara, plus a non-binding memorandum of understanding covering approximately 300 additional megawatts across ECL's U.S. portfolio. Bosch is named as a supporting partner. PowerCell CEO Richard Berkling, speaking to Data Center Dynamics, called it a signal that hydrogen-powered AI data centers are moving "from first-of-kind toward industrial scale."

The pitch is cleaner than the stack.

CSC-1, targeted by ECL founder and CEO Yuval Bachar for a Q4 2026 launch, does not run on hydrogen alone. Unlike ECL's existing Mountain View pilot — MV-1, a 1-megawatt off-grid installation that has been operational since 2024 and is fully leased to AI hosting firm Cato Digital — the Santa Clara campus will run on what ECL calls a "FlexGrid" architecture: a hybrid combining grid electricity, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, and battery storage. Natural gas is a combustion source. ECL's public materials do not address the direct emissions that combustion introduces into what the company nonetheless bills as "zero-emission" operations.

ECL has positioned hydrogen by-product water from CSC-1's fuel cells — estimated by the company at 100 to 160 gallons per hour, per an ECL release on BusinessWire — as a cooling resource that eliminates freshwater draw. That matters in Santa Clara, where the municipal code (Article IV, Chapter 13.15) requires data centers to use recycled water. Whether fuel-cell by-product water satisfies that requirement or triggers a separate permitting track is unconfirmed.

None of ECL's environmental claims appear in any public regulatory record as of this writing. No CEQA documents, California Energy Commission greenhouse gas inventories, Bay Area Air Quality Management District emissions reports, or water use permits have been located for either MV-1 or CSC-1. Every zero-emission and negative-water-footprint claim traces back to ECL press releases and statements attributed to Bachar.

That doesn't mean the underlying technology is a mirage. ECL ran MV-1 as a two-year evaluation testbed before committing to the PS190 systems, per YourTechDiet's coverage of the partnership announcement, and a 1-megawatt hydrogen facility that is operational, tenanted, and generating cooling water is more than most hydrogen-data-center pitches can show. CSC-1 is also being developed in coordination with Silicon Valley Power — Santa Clara's municipal utility — in what ECL frames as a demand-flexibility arrangement, giving the project a grid-management rationale alongside the green marketing.

Of the roughly 300 megawatts the announcement touts, only the Santa Clara campus — phasing up from an initial 2.5 megawatts — represents a firm order. The remaining approximately 265 megawatts sit under a non-binding MoU, which is standard for this stage but worth keeping clear as the company claims industrial scale.

What's still unresolved: ECL has not disclosed the dollar value of the purchase order. No environmental review filings for CSC-1 have surfaced. Whether Silicon Valley Power has formalized any interconnection or demand-response agreement is unconfirmed. And the conditions under which a natural gas-burning, grid-connected facility qualifies as "zero emission" have not been explained. That question will come up when the permits do.