Exelon Corporation will provide equity financing for 21 megawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cell projects at 75 commercial facilities in California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
Bloom operates a site at the University of Delaware STAR campus in Newark and recently leased warehouse space nearby as production increases.
Exelon earlier announced plans to merge its operations with those of Delmarva Power owner Pepco Holdings. Delmarva Power already taps into electricity from Bloom fuel cells in Delaware as part of the state’s alternative energy program.
The power buyers include AT&T, which will use the fuel cells to power operations at nine sites . The financing tool might also open the door to use by large retail stores and other installations that could benefit from not being subject to power outages. While problems have been resolved, Christiana Mall, not long ago, suffered from power outages after a major expansion.
As the first step in a long-term strategic partnership with Bloom Energy, Exelon will finance Bloom Energy projects through Bloom Electron, a service that allows customers to buy power as a service, rather than purchasing the equipment directly. This is the first investment by an energy company in Bloom Electrons, a Bloom release stated.
“As a strong proponent of customer choice and innovation, Exelon is always looking for ways to support business customers who want to take control of their energy usage,” said Chris Crane, CEO of Exelon. “This partnership with Bloom Energy is an extension of our Constellation business, and we are committed to meeting the growing demand for distributed generation with Bloom Energy’s clean, reliable, non-intermittent power solution.”
Exelon’s partnership with Bloom Energy builds upon the distributed generation business of Exelon subsidiary Constellation, a retail supplier of energy products and services serving more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE 100, according to the Bloom release.
The business unit develops, owns and operates distributed generation for retail customers, including onsite solar, emergency generation and cogeneration. Constellation has been active in the distributed generation business since 2007.
Bloom Energy servers use solid oxide fuel cell technology to produce electricity from natural gas. The equipment uses an electrochemical process that results in far fewer carbon emissions than other traditional power generation methods.
Use of the servers, sometimes known as Bloom Boxes is viewed as a way to provide back-up power for large corporate sites without the use of noisy diesel equipment that also comes with potential fuel spill, noise, reliability and pollution problems.
In Delaware, the use of the Bloom servers producing 30 megawatts of power has generated controversy, due to the cost of the alternative energy source. to customers. Delmarva officials say legislators and regulators were aware of the costs, which have not run above estimates.
So far, JPMorgan Chase has been the only Delaware corporation to announce plans to work with Bloom on possible installations at its sites.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Credit Suisse was Exelon’s financial adviser, and Morgan Stanley advised Bloom on its partnership with Exelon.
