By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues
Bloom Energy‘s Director of Product Marketing, Asim Hussain, made a rare public appearance at SVForum’s Clean Tech Conference last week and shared some details about Bloom’s 2012 plans:
New manufacturing facility in Delaware.
“Here in California, we’ve created 1500 clean jobs and we’re going to do the same in Delaware when we build that (30MW) manufacturing facility.” Asim Hussain
Manufacturing in California
The privately held company currently has three manufacturing facilities – including its testing facility – and they employ two Bloom Boxes to power one plant, using a biogas source. They plan to extend that capability to the recently built second plant. Unlike many Silicon Valley companies, manufacturing operations are here in the valley, although they have a global supply chain.
Bloom Electrons
Fresh Dialogues asked about the future of Bloom Electrons, the energy-only purchase model the company announced last year. Instead of paying the hefty $800,000 upfront cost for a Bloom energy server, customers sign a ten-year energy purchase agreement at a fixed price. Hussain confirmed that this model allows Bloom to access a new market segment: the nonprofit sector. The poster child for Bloom Electrons is California Institute of Technology Caltech – which began a 2 MW Bloom installation in 2010. The program has also allowed commercial clients like Walmart to expand their Bloom installations from two to twenty eight stores.
Post Solyndra
In the Post Solyndra era, Bloom Energy is not immune to scrutiny. The numbers have been crunched; the energy supply sources have been analyzed (on which planet is natural gas – the fossil fuel – a renewable resource?); the accusations of too much reliance on tax credits and subsidies have been leveled. Can the company, which has been valued at close to $3 B, meet all its cofounder, KR Sridhar’s ambitious dreams and change the world? Watch this space.
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Hussain was part of a panel discussion on green building, moderated by Abby Johnson of Abacus Property. The experts included Alain Poivet of Sunplanter, Swapnil Shah of FirstFuel and PG&E’s Andrew Yip. The conference was hosted by SAP‘s green gurus Peter Graf, and Rami Branitzky
For more coverage of Bloom Energy, check out our exclusive interviews, transcripts and stories.
Bloom’s KR Sridhar Interviews:
Bloom Box Affordability Essentials
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