Bloom Energy Coming to Delaware

A decade into the 21st century, Delaware is placing a big bet on clean, high tech energy. Bloom Energy, which makes sleek, highly efficient fuel cells, announced yesterday that it is setting up a manufacturing facility on the old Chrysler site in Newark. The company will eventually employ 900 workers, and its suppliers may add another 600 jobs on the site.

The fuel cells, called Bloom Energy Servers or Bloom Boxes, combine fuel such as methane with air to directly generate electricity. These fuel cells are already online providing power to customers such as Google, Adobe and CalTech.

I spoke to a session of Leadership Delaware yesterday on the economics of renewable energy. The fellows, who had been listening to speakers on energy all day, had not heard the news when I stood up around 4:30. Two minutes into my talk, I could make the point that clean energy is not a dream, but a reality, which will bring jobs and other economic benefits to Delaware.

This is what a clean energy future looks like. Delaware has no energy resources other than sunlight and wind, and thus has no economic interest in relying on coal power from out of state. Coal burned here or to our west produces pollutants like SOx, NOx and particulate matter that degrades our health.

I'm sitting on a panel on green energy as part of today's Governor's Entrepreneurial Business Conference in Wilmington. (It's a great panel that includes Dr. Michael T. Klein and Dan Rich of the University of Delaware and John Moore of Acorn Energy.) The discussion won't just be theoretical; we will be able to talk about real opportunities in the very near future. In the effort to replace 19th energy with 21st century technology, it make sense for Delaware to place its bet on clean energy.