Bloom Energy completes $6.6 million project at Newark site

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Bloom Energy has completed a  $6.6  million project in Newark in preparation for future growth.

The San Jose-based company is seeing increased interest in its hydrogen-producing electrolyzer systems while seeing steady sales growth for  its fuel cells servers.

Bloom moved to increase production capacity for its fuel cell stacks,  by signing a lease for space in  the San Francisco area suburb of Fremont, CA

“Our pressing constraint to unlocking additional manufacturing capacity is the production of our fuel cell stacks at our Sunnyvale, CA,  facility,” said Bloom spokesperson Jennifer Duffourg. “We currently have about 200 MW of Bloom 5.0 revenue stack manufacturing capacity with no remaining additional space to increase capacity and overall production footprint. To support our growth expectations, and with the introduction of Bloom 7.5, we secured a 164,000 square foot facility for additional stack manufacturing capacity in Fremont, CA which is close to our engineering team.”

Bloom 7.5 is the next generation of energy servers, which according to the company will come with a 50% increase in  power density and a “substantial cost reduction.”

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According to Duffourg, the California  site  is large enough to add several stack manufacturing lines, with the expectation that the company will build  fuel cell stack capacity in the coming years.

Under Bloom’s manufacturing system, the fuel cell stacks are made in northern California and transported to Newark, where the components are assembled into Bloom Energy Servers.

Duffourg said the Newark site has ample floorspace for added production. “In fact, with minimal capital investment and the right labor planning, we can increase our capacity to nearly two GW of annual production there,” she said.

Duffourg said Bloom has added 90  jobs over the last year, and now has  481 full time employees. The company plans  to hire about 100 positions in Newark over the next year.

That  is below the 900 jobs projected nearly a decade ago when the Delaware General Assembly approved an agreement to feed  electricity from Bloom servers into the Delmarva Power grid. The shortfall has been partially offset by higher pay than was first projected.

The agreement also calls for Delmarva Power customers to pay for electricity at a figure that is  above market rates and can run $4 or more a month.

Actions aimed at overturning the long-term agreement  have failed.

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