Dive Brief:
- Exelon Corp. is buying 21 megawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cell capacity at undisclosed terms that Bloom will operate and maintain at 75 corporate sites throughout California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
- Electricity generated by the fuel cells using natural gas in a reduced-pollution electrochemical reaction will be sold by Exelon, the biggest U.S. producer of nuclear energy, to corporate clients willing to pay a premium price for the on-site generation.
- The deal is regarded as a gain in market credibility for Bloom’s technology and a venture into new distributed generation for Exelon, which hopes to capitalize on the increasing concern by corporate facility operators about power grid reliability.
Dive Insight:
Because fuel cell electricity generation is not emissions-free, the deal adds to the controversy surrounding Exelon’s $6.8 billion purchase of Pepco Holdings, some of whose customers have accused Pepco subsidiary Delmarva Power of using their utility bill payments to profit from a separate 30 megawatt purchase of fuel cells.
Exelon will sell the electricity through Constellation Energy, its retail electricity market subsidiary. The fuel cells are expected to be in service within twelve months and produce power equal to that used by an estimated 11,000 average U.S. homes. Exelon will site fuel cells at nine AT&T locations and a variety of other "blue chip" client locations.
