Bloom Boxes

Our natural gas revolution is sure to spark greater interest in methane based fuel cells.  See the following regarding fuel cells and data centers:

Apple isn’t the only large data center operator pursuing this strategy. Microsoft is planning to build data plants where modular data centers will be powered by renewable energy, including biogas from water treatment plants and landfills.

Apple says that using biogas will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants while diversifying the fuel mix for its data center energy. The announcement of the fuel cell sparked speculation that Apple might use biogass from pig manure as a fuel source. But the FERC filing indicates that Apple will use landfill gas rather than manure digester gas.

The installation is expected to feature 24 200-kilowatt Bloom Energy Servers placed on outdoor pads, according to regulatory filings. Bloom Energy is converting a former Chrysler auto assembly plant in Delaware into a manufacturing facility to churn out its Bloom Energy Servers for East Coast customers, including Apple.

The Bloom Energy Server is based on solid oxide fuel cell technology that converts fuel to electricity through an electro-chemical reaction, without any combustion. Because they are housed at the customer premises, the Bloom box can continue operating during grid outages.

“Once the Bloom Energy Manufacturing Center is completed, we will double Bloom Energy’s production capacity,” said KR Sridhar, Principal Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bloom Energy. “Delaware complements our California roots and strategically positions us to better serve our expanding customer base.”

For additional information, check out Bloom Energy.