A formal groundbreaking ceremony is slated for Monday morning for the new Bloom Energy site in Newark.
- Bloom servers at high-tech company Adobe.
Executives of the California-based company will join both of the state’s U.S. Senators, Gov. Jack Markell, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker and others at the event.
The facility on the University of Delaware’s new Science, Technology and Research Campus will bring an estimated 1,500 manufacturing, supply chain and construction jobs to the region. The campus site was purchased by UD after the closing of the Chrysler plant.
Bloom manufactures fuel cells that convert natural gas to electricity. The technology has its roots in the Mars space program, which has since been abandoned.
Bloom cells, or “energy servers” are to be installed at Delmarva Power sites in the New Castle area. The power will be fed into the grid and used to help the utility reach goals for alternate energy sources.
Bloom has sold its fuel cells to a number of major companies, primarily in California, but wants to move into East Coast markets. Bloom servers will be used to provide an alternate energy source at a new Apple data center in North Carolina.
The company is targeting data centers and other such sites where Fortune 500 companies are under pressure to use alternate energy sources, rather than power generated by coal.
