Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy has broken ground on a new manufacturing plant in Newark, Delaware, on a 272-acre former Chrysler assembly site.
Now bicoastal, Bloom will have double the manufacturing capacity. Last year, it quadrupled capacity at its plant – and headquarters – in Sunnyvale, California, to 210,000 square feet, creating more than 1000 jobs.
Bloom also announced new customers: Owens Corning, Urban Outfitters, Delmarva Power, Washington Gas and AT&T. They join Google, eBay, Wal-Mart, Staples and Coca-Cola that have already have Bloom Boxes.
AT&T has Bloom Boxes at 11 sites in California, producing 7.5 megawatts. The fuel cells that will power Apple’s new massive data center in North Carolina will be Bloom Boxes.
The company launched a service model last year – Bloom Electrons – similar to that of solar leasing: customers purchase the energy rather than buying the fuel cell boxes outright.
Customers lock in the electricity rate for 10 years, delivering fixed predictable costs, and Bloom manages and maintains the systems.
Bloom’s solid oxide fuel cell technology converts fuel to electricity using an electrochemical reaction, rather than combustion. As a result, customers greatly reduce their carbon footprint while also cutting operating costs, the company says.
The Bloom Energy Manufacturing Center will become the anchor tenant of the new University of Delaware Science, Technology and Advanced Research Campus. "From the beginning, we’ve envisioned this campus as a place where the most creative minds in academia and industry come together to solve the world’s most urgent problems. This vision is being actualized today. We look forward to engaging with Bloom in innovative research, academic and community partnerships – partnerships that benefit the state and its people and revolutionize America’s clean energy future," says University of Delaware President Patrick Harker.
Construction is expected to be completed in mid-2013, with manufacturing set to begin shortly afterwards.
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Fuel Cell Technology seems to be going global!
“FuelCell Energy Announces Completion of Investment by South Korean Partner”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fuelcell-energy-announces-completion-of-investment-by-south-korean-partner-2012-05-02
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20120312-902771.html
When will they make this for Homes??? This could be a MUCH MUCH bigger and faster source of income…
Maybe we could try to get Colin Powell to amend for his big part in the last Oil Adminsistration’s rush into the disastrous Iraq war here some how. He supposedly is a proponent of Fuel Cell Technology and on the board of directors at Bloom Energy.
The US shall rise again.
Federal Lawsuit Regarding Bloom Energy
FYI
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/21/884-May-Be-Bloom-Energys-Fatal-Number-Fuel-Cell-Efficiency-Federal-State-Tax-Credits
“Buried deep in the permit application, in Table 1 on page 161 of a 163-page application, was the number 884. On that page, under penalty of perjury, Bloom officially told the world that its energy servers emit 884 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour.
Also buried on page 161 of the permit application is a Table 2 notation that says these 235 “clean” servers would emit 22.56 pounds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) per day. But Delaware, like other states, regulates VOC emissions at far lower levels (Maryland, for instance, regulates boat repair shops that emit more than 15 pounds per day). Moreover, if the same amount of power had been generated by combined cycle gas turbines, only 0.249 pounds of VOCs would be emitted daily. That’s 90 times less pollution!
To top it off, because of the Bloom servers’ low efficiency and high capital cost, Delaware citizens will pay Bloom over $200 per megawatt hour of power delivered to their electricity transmission grid. But in January 2012, the U.S. Energy Information Agency said the projected “levelized” cost of electricity over the next 30 years from advanced gas-fired combined cycle power stations is $65.50 per MWH.