I thought fuel cells were an energy storage system, not an energy generation system. Surely it’s cheaper to just connect the data center to the generation directly (either by upgrading the grid to handle it or building generators nearby).

Fuel cells are an electricity generation method. They oxidize fuels (methane, hydrogen) at low temperature, electrochemically, without combustion—going directly from fuel to electrons.

This would have been simply a natural gas power plant, of a different type.

Most fuel cells can't be recharged. They take combustible gases, re-assemble the molecules in the gas into H2O or something chemically stable, and release the energy delta as voltage potentials. The cells work purely as catalysts. Only the fuels are expended.

It's just a type of battery, that takes fuel, as its refillable energy source. Weird but it works.

"either by upgrading the grid to handle it or building generators nearby" -- probably in the long run but in the short run impossible. Generators and utility interconnections are back ordered. I think gas turbines are back ordered like 3+ years.

Bloom is super expensive for what it is. It's only doing well right now because demand for power surged and they have a product that can fill the gap, hypothetically, quickly.

Yes, there is a completely different thing with the same name. Race cars can use fuel cells to prevent sloshing. Those are basically fuel tanks with foam in them.

That was not my understanding. Unless this installation was supposed to be producing fuel on site somehow, fuel cells are a mechanism for turning fuel into electricity.

https://www.bloomenergy.com/technology/