San Francisco Business Times – Bloom Energy, a fuel cell technology company, started building a factory in Newark, Delaware. They have a solid oxide fuel cell technology. The Bloom’s Energy Server™ is a distributed power generator, producing clean, reliable, affordable electricity at the customer site.
Sunnyvale-based Bloom Energy plans to hire “hundreds” of people to work in the factory on a 272-acre site owned by the University of Delaware. The site used to be a Chrysler assembly plant.
Wikipedia – The Bloom Energy Server (commonly referred to as the Bloom Box) is a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) made by Bloom Energy, of Sunnyvale, California, that can use a wide variety of inputs (including liquid or gaseous hydrocarbon produced from bio sources) to generate electricity on the site where it will be used. It is highly efficient, low cost and has low polluting emissions. This type of fuel cell can withstand temperatures of up to 1800°F, which would cause many other types of fuel cells to break down or need maintenance, and is highly advantageous for its smooth operation. According to the company, a single cell (one 100 mm × 100 mm metal alloy plate between two ceramic layers) generates 25 watts.
The current cost of each hand-made 100 kW Bloom Energy Server is $700,000–800,000. In the next stage, which will likely be mass production of home-sized units, Sridhar hopes to more than half the cost of each home sized Bloom server to under $3000 per kW. Bloom estimates the size of a home sized server as 1 kilowatt, although cNet News reports critical estimates recommend 5 kW capacity for a residence.
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