Bloom Energy Server
In 2011, Bloom stated that two hundred servers had been deployed in California for corporations including Google, Yahoo, and Wal-Mart.
[12] According to The New York Times (Green Blog), in early 2011 "... Bloom Energy ... unveiled a service to allow customers to buy the electricity generated by its fuel cells without incurring the capital costs of purchasing the six-figure devices....
Under the Bloom Electrons service, customers sign 10-year contracts to purchase the electricity generated by Bloom Energy Servers while the company retains ownership of the fuel cells and responsibility for their maintenance.... 'We’re able to tell customers, ‘You don’t have to put any money up front, you pay only for the electrons you use and it’s good for your pocketbook and good for planet,’ ' [CEO K.R.
[14][15] Twenty percent of the cost savings depend upon avoiding transfer losses that result from energy grid use.
[7][30] Bloom Energy's approach of assembling fuel-cell stacks that enables individual plates to expand and contract at the same rate at high temperatures.
[9] Scott Samuelsen of the University of California, Irvine National Fuel Cell Research Center questioned the operational life of Bloom Servers.
"[30] Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory expert Michael Tucker claimed, "Because they operate at high temperatures, they can accept other fuels like natural gas and methane, and that's an enormous advantage...
"[30] Venture capitalist John Doerr asserted that the Bloom Energy Server is cheaper and cleaner than the grid.
[34] Each Bloom Energy Server ES5700 is said to provide 200 kW of power, similar to the baseload needs of 160 average homes or one office building.
[17] The CEO of eBay says Bloom Energy Servers have saved the company $100,000 in electricity bills since they were installed in mid-2009,[8] Fortune Magazine contributor Paul Keegan calls that figure "meaningless without the details to see how he got there".
[31] The largest disadvantage is the high operating temperature which results in longer start-up times and mechanical and chemical compatibility issues.
[39] Sprint partnered with ReliOn and Altergy for fuel cell manufacture, and with Air Products and Chemicals as a hydrogen supplier.
German fuel cell firm P21 has been working on similar projects to supply backup power for cellular operations.
In October 2009, the Department of Energy awarded nearly US$25 million in grants for research and development of solar fuels.
[42] A competitor claimed the Bloom Box uses a "thick electrolyte" that requires 900 °C temperatures to overcome electrical resistance.
Topsoe Fuel Cell[43] and Ceres Power instead employ "thick anode" technology that allows operation at cooler temperature.
Ceres has a four-year program to install 37,500 units in the homes of customers of the UK's British Gas.
[44] Ballard Power's comparably scaled products are based on proton exchange membrane fuel cells.
It claims an efficiency of 60% for the power-only units; these fuel cells are based on technology spun off from Australia's CSIRO.
