Bloom Energy issued an upbeat report for its Newark manufacturing site in a letter to legislators.
The letter came from William Kurtz, chief financial and commercial officer for the company, who wrote that the site as “thriving at the site of the former Chrysler plant in Newark.”
The letter reported that Bloom now has more than 232 full-time workers, adding two dozen staff in the past month alone.
Kurtz noted that the company has met deadlines, completing its project with Delmarva and the plant itself on schedule.
The 232 workers is below job figures specified in the legislation. However, the News Journal reported there are no penalties imposed until later in the decade. The state incentives package calls for 900 workers to be hired, 100 or so fewer than the job total when the Chrysler plant closed in 2008.
Kurtz reported Bloom has paid more than $12 million in total compensation to workers, with $9.5 million of that amount paid in the last 12 months. Of the 232 hires, more than 15 percent are veterans, with nearly 20 workers hired from manufacturing sites that have closed, one example being Evraz Claymont Steel.
“The future is bright,” Kurtz wrote. “We have almost 140 MWs (megawatts) of servers installed across the United States and Japan. Bloom has a growing strategic partnership with Exelon, one of the nation’s leading energy companies, and our market is growing.”
“Our customers decide the timing of the announcements for their projects, but we can confirm a very strong funnel of contracted but yet-to-be-announced projects,” Kurtz wrote. “This together with our continued international expansion demonstrates strong demand for Bloom’s clean, reliable energy servers. Our continued growth and execution in Delaware will be critical to the overall success of our business.”
Earlier, Gov. Jack Markell confirmed that most production of Bloom fuel cells (about the size of a parking space) is now taking place at the Newark site.
The letter from the California company comes as the company remains under scrutiny after legislation aimed at bringing the plant to Newark was signed by the governor.
In return for building the plant, legislators approved a plan to have Delmarva Power customers pay for the higher costs of electricity generated from fuel cells installed at sites in New Castle County.
Bloom and the state have faced lawsuits related to the Delmarva deal and related issues and there has been speculation for a time that the company was not in production mode. Bloom has since added warehouse space at a separate Newark site
Bloom, based in California’s Silicon Valley, has been known as a secretive company. However, the privately held manufacturer has reported a steady string of new installations at technology and retail companies.
It also struck a deal Japan-based Softbank for installations in that nation, which was hit hard by the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster and is looking at alternatives.
The fuel cell technology came out of NASA research into power plants that would be used in human settlements on Mars.
Bloom recently issued a newsletter for the community and the media that outlines new agreements and installations.
Customers include Yahoo, Walmart, Adobe and AT&T. Press reports have also listed an Apple site in North Carolina as Bloom’s largest data center installation. Bloom’s sole business installation in Delaware is at a site of JPMorgan Chase.
Supporters of the company see the potential of the servers being used to replace dirtier diesel back-up generating systems that are fired up during periods of peak power use or outages. Bloom cells run continuously.
Critics claim Bloom sales come in states with major incentives for installations and further question the “clean energy” claims of the company, citing the low pollution figures in the most recent generation of gas-fired power plants, such as the Old Dominion plant now under construction a half an hour away from Newark. Bloom servers primarily run off of natural gas.
Local critics include WDEL radio talk show host Rick Jensen, and The Caesar Rodney Institute, a pubic policy group that has been associated with lawsuits filed against the state and company.
Legislators have also questioned the charges paid by Delmarva customers that according to the News Journal have run $3 to $5 a month above other options. The legislation passed both houses by healthy margins.
Delmarva Power officials have said the costs have not run above figures submitted to the General Assembly when the Bloom legislation was under consideration.
