Bloom Energy

Bloom Energy primarily develops modularized and scalable on-site power generation units. based on its proprietary solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology to convert fuel into electricity through an electrochemical process that does not involve combustion. Bloom Energy’s power generation units are the size of a standard 30-foot shipping container and produce around 200-300 kilowatts of power. These units can be installed at or near the site where electricity is consumed and any number of units can be clustered together to meet customer demand. Bloom Energy had installed SOFC units at 1,326 customer sites (+11.1% YoY) in 2020, and as of January 2021, the company’s customer base included 25 Fortune 100 companies.

Bloom Energy’s power generation units primarily use natural gas as a fuel. In September 2021, for the first time, Bloom Energy announced the commercialization of hydrogen powered SOFC. Prior to this, in April 2021, the company deployed 100 kilowatts of SOFCs powered by hydrogen in Ulsan, South Korea. The pilot project was carried out in collaboration with SK Engineering & Construction (a South Korean construction company and affiliate of SK Group). The SOFCs will use waste-hydrogen created by SK’s operations to generate electricity. Upon completion of the pilot, the two companies will support South Korea’s Changwon RE100 initiative, having won a competitive bid to supply Bloom Energy’s hydrogen-powered SOFCs and hydrogen electrolyzers to an industrial complex there.  Bloom Energy also partnered with Conrad Energy and Electricity North West to deploy its SOFC technology in the UK.

In July 2020, Bloom Energy announced its intentions to enter commercial hydrogen production by developing solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOEC), which converts water or steam into hydrogen and oxygen. In May 2021, Bloom Energy partnered with Baker Hughes, an oil field services company, to explore opportunities to pair the company’s SOEC technology with Baker Hughes’ compression technology in commercial hydrogen production. The two companies will target applications such as blending hydrogen into natural gas pipelines, as well as on-site hydrogen production for industrial use. In December 2021, Bloom Energy collaborated with SoCalGas, a natural gas utility, to deploy a hydrogen blending demonstration project.  Bloom Energy also partnered with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to test the use of nuclear energy to generate clean hydrogen (Steam supplied to the electrolyzers can also be generated by thermal energy produced by a nuclear power plant to improve the efficiency of hydrogen production) and Heliogen to launch a demonstration facility to produce low-cost green hydrogen. In June 2022, Bloom Energy installed hydrogen fuel cells at Ferrari’s Italian headquarters and manufacturing facility for battery-powered car production.

Bloom Energy has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since July 2018. The company’s revenue was USD 794 million in 2020 (+1.1% year-over-year) which was primarily from natural gas-based power generation unit sales while hydrogen operations had yet to generate any revenue. The company’s operating loss stood at USD 81 million in 2020.