China Hits Limit and Turns to K-Tech: Power Grid Bottlenecks Spark Interest in Hydrogen Fuel Cells

As artificial intelligence data centers rapidly expand, the failure to supply electricity on time has become a major obstacle to the growth of the AI industries in both the United States and China.

In particular, analysis suggests that China's power grid bottleneck could present a new business opportunity for South Korea's hydrogen fuel cell industry.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), building an AI data center typically takes between 8 months and 2 years.

However, building a new power grid to supply electricity to these data centers takes more than 5 years, and in many cases, over 10 years.

The expansion of power infrastructure is simply failing to keep pace with the speed of AI data center construction.

Recently, the U.S. government decided to inject $1.9 billion, or approximately 2.6 trillion won, in federal funds to resolve the power shortages facing AI data centers.

The situation is similar in China, where power consumption by Chinese AI data centers is projected to surge from 196 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025 to up to 700 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030.

The problem is that the locations where electricity is generated and where it is consumed are far apart.

Renewable energy power plants are mostly located in the western inland regions, while demand for AI data centers is concentrated on the eastern coast.

Experts analyze that it will take a long time to expand transmission networks to send electricity thousands of kilometers away.

As a result, distributed power generation facilities that produce electricity directly near data centers are being discussed as an alternative, with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) standing out as a representative technology.

Because they convert the chemical energy of fuel into electricity to supply power near data centers, they can supplement power supply even before large-scale transmission networks are completed.

A recent report released by the Carbon Neutrality and ESG Research Center at the Beijing Jinwen Law Firm highlighted the competitiveness of South Korean companies in this sector.

The report analyzes that while China has price competitiveness in basic fuel cell materials and raw material processing, it is relatively lacking in mass-production experience for finished systems that combine components to generate power stably over long periods.

On the other hand, it evaluated that South Korea has surpassed 1 gigawatt in cumulative installations of fuel cells for power generation, accumulating extensive experience in system integration and maintenance through long-term operation of actual power plants.

The report analyzed that combining China's raw material competitiveness with South Korea's system mass-production technology could create cooperation opportunities targeting the power demand of China's AI data centers.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Jang Yu-jin | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.