The progress made at the largest onshore oil field in western Europe reflects a pivotal moment for Bloom Energy as the project represents the company’s first Energy Server on a skid commissioned internationally. This successfully demonstrated solution will support the site’s baseload power requirements and will continue to drive Bloom’s future business growth in the UK and beyond.

Additionally, the project’s adherence to and compliance with the UK’s most stringent Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) regulations offers a helpful reference point for planning and permitting authorities evaluating the safety and environmental aspects of future Bloom Energy installations across the country.

“The Energy Server system is now exporting at their rated capacity and exceeding the guaranteed efficiency,” explained Tim Schweikert, Head of International Sales for Bloom. “We congratulate the Bloom team and thank Perenco for their partnership. We look forward to future, positive steps in this important project.”

“Wherever we work, we are committed to reducing the impact of our operations. With Bloom Energy, and its innovative and cleaner power, we are pleased to have moved from signing to commissioning the first phase of the solid oxide fuel system at Wytch Farm in under a year.” said Armel Simondin, Perenco CEO. “This is a clear statement of our intent, and we look forward to providing updates on similar milestones from across the group in the future.”

Bloom signed the agreement with Perenco to install 2.5 megawatts (MW) of Bloom Solid Oxide Fuel cells in England last year. The project marks the first commercial deployment of Bloom Fuel cell technology in the United Kingdom

Perenco’s Wytch Farm Site in Dorset, is a designated COMAH site, located within the Dorset area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Purbeck Heritage Coast, and special areas of conservation.

For more information about the project, please read the June 2023 press release detailing Bloom’s groundbreaking agreement with Perenco.

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SK ecoplant, a Korean company that is a long-time partner of Bloom Energy, has announced that it will be using Bloom’s innovative fuel cell technology when it builds a new data center in Singapore for GDS, China’s largest data center developer. The Singapore Economic Development Board and the Infocomm Media Development Authority selected GDS as part of a group of four data center operators that will share in what could eventually be about 80 megawatts (MW) of new capacity for Singapore’s information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.

“Bloom Energy is excited to be a partner with SK and provide our Energy Servers to power a GDS data center in Singapore,” says Bloom Energy Founder, Chairman and CEO, KR Sridhar. “The grid constraint in Singapore is similar to the lack of power availability in most data center hubs around the world today. This lack of supply is making distributed power that can be deployed quickly with our modular AlwaysOn fuel cells the right choice for data centers. It is also the cleanest available technology today and can operate on net-zero fuels like hydrogen as they become available, thereby enabling the ICT segment to meet their sustainability goals. We look forward to supporting our partner SK in this project.”

The project will be Bloom’s first in Singapore as it expands its Asian footprint. In Taiwan recently, the company cut the ribbon on the initial phase of a 10MW project in Taiwan for Unimicron, a chip substrate and printed circuit board maker. Working with SK ecoplant, Bloom has installed more than 400 MW of fuel cells in South Korea. Bloom inaugurated a 100 kilowatt (kW) hydrogen-powered Energy Server® project in Korea in April 2021. The company also put in its Bloom Electrolyzer™ there and began producing hydrogen from it in January 2022.

Bloom’s fuel-flexible solid oxide fuel cells have become a key power source for data centers in Asia, the United States and Europe. Last fall Bloom installed 500kW of fuel cells in Bengaluru, India, for Nxtra by Airtel, which has 12 large and 120 edge data centers across India. In a report earlier this year, Frost & Sullivan named Bloom the leading company in the stationary fuel cell market and said that data centers are key to that sector’s growth. As Jeff Barber, Bloom’s Vice President of global data centers, has noted, data centers’ already substantial power appetite could get even larger with the surge in demand for generative artificial intelligence. The large power demands from data centers spurred Bloom’s latest development, the Series 10 Bloom Energy Server. Series 10 enables customers like data centers to rapidly meet growing power needs and net-zero compliance at competitive costs and without committing to a long-term contract or worrying about cost increases.

Growing power demands are being felt in markets like Singapore, which is considered a global data center hub with more than 70 data centers already in operation. Since data centers need to store and distribute a lot of information in real-time every day without a break, they need a reliable and efficient power system that can also maintain a constant internal temperature and humidity.

Bloom’s fuel cells are decentralized power sources that reliably generate electricity from natural gas, biogas or hydrogen without combustion, resulting in low or no CO2 emissions. They can also compensate for the intermittency and volatility of renewable energy.

The Singaporean government has announced it will promote a plan to supply half of the country’s power through hydrogen for carbon neutrality by 2050. SK ecoplant plans to actively seek to win additional orders for fuel cell projects in the growing Southeast Asian new and renewable energy market, including Singapore.

“As we now have experience ranging from small, medium to large-scale fuel cell power supply solutions, we will accelerate our efforts to target various markets, such as markets for power generation and commercial use,” said SK ecoplant CEO Park Kyung-il. “We intend to lead the global fuel cell market through continuous collaboration with local Korean companies, as well as top-tier companies worldwide.”

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Nxtra by Airtel is the data center subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, India’s leading telecom company. It has 12 large and 120 edge data centers across India and has pledged to expand its capacity by 2X to over 400 MW in the next few years. It also has pledged to do so with clean energy.

In installing 500kW of Bloom fuel cells at a site in Bengaluru, Nxtra is meeting both its clean power and time to power needs. The Bloom Energy Server®, as our solid oxide fuel cells are known, creates electricity from a wide variety of fuels without combustion, which means no particulate pollution. Nxtra’s installation currently runs on natural gas, but the company hopes to switch to hydrogen as soon as commercial quantities of the clean fuel is available. As for speed, the deal was inked in September 2022, and the fuel cells were installed and providing power in December.

“As Nxtra continues to play a leading role in India’s emergence as hub of data center industry in the Asia-Pacific region, we continue to be deeply committed to set new benchmarks in sustainability for the data center industry,” said Rajesh Tapadia, chief operating officer of Nxtra. “We embarked on our sustainability journey with an ambition to reach net zero by 2031 and have adopted strategic efforts to adopt innovative energy solutions. Our partnership with Bloom Energy is in line with this commitment and aims to fulfil our future-ready energy strategy to supply more cleaner energy to our data centers.”

The Nxtra installation marks a significant step forward in India for Bloom, which was founded by an Indian immigrant to America, KR Sridhar. His work for NASA on life support systems for Mars missions became the foundation of a company that now makes the future-proof fuel cells installed in India, and the Bloom Electrolyzer™ that produces hydrogen with the greatest efficiency of any electrolyzer technology now on the market. Bloom maintains support operations in India, including a center that monitors the performance of its fuel cells around the world in real time. This also includes the Nxtra data center in Bengaluru.

Where will the future take us? Hopefully towards more greener data centers, in India and beyond. Regions like Asia and Africa are increasingly building data center capabilities but these regions face power growth challenges. This is where Bloom technology can step in and help data centers to meet their power needs sustainably.

The post How Bloom Energy Fuel Cells Support India’s Data Center Growth appeared first on Bloom Energy.

Drawing on locally sourced, flexible American manufacturing, Bloom is able to bring its supply chain closer to its world-class manufacturing hubs in Delaware and California, helping enhance Bloom’s ability to meet the demands of its growing global customer base and bringing the world closer to a net-zero energy future.

A number of local dignitaries and Vital executives were present at the Vital/FHR open house at the new facility, including Bowling Green Mayor Mike Aspacher, as well as Michael Xiong, Managing Director of the Americas, Vital & FHR North America, and Mark Zhu, President of Vital Thin Film Materials. Satish Chitoori, Bloom Energy’s Senior Vice President, Head of Global Procurement and Supply Chain, also attended, as well as representatives from government, universities, and contractors. After the ribbon cutting, all were invited to tour the Vital/FHR Bowling Green office and production areas.

The company, a subsidiary of Vital Materials, makes materials and vacuum coating systems for a wide range of uses, including solar, display, automotive, MEMS, sensors, photonics, and wearable/decorative products, and it will use that expertise to provide manufacturing services to Bloom. Vital’s investment at Bowling Green is designed to reduce its inventory costs, shorten lead times, and secure critical supply chains for key customers like Bloom. The new facility will also serve as an engineering center of excellence for next-generation medical imaging devices.

“The grand opening of the Vital/FHR Bowling Green site is a key milestone for Vital Group’s expansion into North America,” said Xiong. “We will continue to invest heavily in our global manufacturing footprint and R&D, enabling Bloom Energy to achieve tomorrow’s clean energy platforms, with a reliable and cost competitive supply chain.”

As Bloom has repeatedly noted in its regulatory filings, its supply chain has grown to include high-quality suppliers that support automotive, semiconductor and other traditional manufacturing organizations in the United States, Asia, Europe and India. Its operations require raw materials and, sometimes, services that require special manufacturing processes.

Although shocks to supply chains were common during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloom’s supplier base and supply chain remained strong, resulting in no significant supplier disruptions and no impact on manufacturing or delivering its American made goods to its customers. As head of Global Procurement and Supply Chain at Bloom Energy, Chitoori works to strengthen and enhance supply chains, preventing disruptions and limiting impact on operations and costs. He was pleased to welcome Vital/FHR to the ranks of Bloom suppliers on June 28.

“Bloom is constantly working to expand and improve its supply chain, both in the U.S. and abroad,” Chitoori said. “Adding Vital/FHR will support the growth in demand that we are seeing for the Bloom Energy Server, our fuel cell platform, and prepare us to meet the building interest in the Bloom Electrolyzer.”

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Sridhar stressed that joining the transition to clean energy is becoming more compelling all the time. “Traditional fuels are destined to increase in price, while technology will gradually have lower costs,” he told Monica D’Ascenzo of Il Sole 24 Ore. “We, for example, have grown by 30% a year over the last five years and our costs have gone down by 15%. This means that, within the next 10 years, our solution will be increasingly more economically more competitive, as well as being installed close to where energy is used, without poles and wires, without interruption, and without emissions.”

Bloom’s Energy Servers are more efficient, he added. “With the same amount of natural gas we produce more energy than any other solution available.”

Bloom entered the Italian market in June 2022, with a one megawatt Energy Server installation at Ferrari’s manufacturing facility and headquarters in Maranello. Operating at superior efficiencies, the Energy Server® installation will initially provide 5 percent of the energy needed there. In November 2022, Bloom announced a partnership with Cefla, a leading Italian engineering, procurement and construction company to deploy multiple megawatts of fuel cells through 2025. That work will begin in September.

“We believe that Italy is an interesting country due to the opportunities for our technology in sectors such as the steel industry, which has a particular impact on the Italian economy and is particularly energy intensive,” said Sridhar.

He also singled out the Italian chemicals sector, where Bloom fuel cells could use hydrogen as a fuel to produce energy, but also produce hydrogen by implementing the Bloom Electrolyzer™. “Finally,” Sridhar said, “there is the data center sector and all applications related to the development of artificial intelligence, because they require a high amount of energy and at the same time the guarantee of non-interruptions.” Sridhar was in Italy at the end of May for the Data Center Nation 2023 Conference in Milan and also to discuss partnerships and agreements. Bloom’s Energy Servers help to power many data centers in the United States, where companies are having difficulty getting power on a schedule to match their growth.

Sridhar’s interview with Il Sole 24 Ore was published on June 3, 2023. It is available to subscribers, in Italian, here: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/bloom-energy-punta-sull-italia-le-sue-fuel-cell-senza-emissioni-AE0ZH8ZD

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“Nujio’qonik,” or “where the sand blows” in the native Mi’kmaw language of Newfoundland, refers to the powerful winds that batter the island throughout the year. This natural resource presents a unique opportunity for wind-based power generation. Specifically, the project will utilize the island’s ideal meteorological conditions to generate electricity that will then be utilized to produce green hydrogen — with zero carbon emissions.

The Nujio’qonik project will utilize a combination of two electrolyzer technologies, SOEC and PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane), to use the electricity from wind to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Bloom Energy will be providing the SOEC technology, and, as the Bloom Electrolyzer™ operates at temperatures of approximately 700℃, it requires less electricity to produce the needed hydrogen.

The green hydrogen from the electrolyzers will be further processed to generate green ammonia (NH₃). Ammonia, which is created by combining three atoms of hydrogen with one atom of nitrogen, provides an effective method for storing and transporting hydrogen. Clean ammonia can also be used as a fuel for maritime or stationary power generation, or in the classic application for ammonia and its derivatives, fertilizer which supports approximately half of human life on earth. SK ecoplant will design a facility which recycles heat created during the ammonia synthesis process into low-grade steam which will be fed to the Bloom Energy SOECs to further reduce the energy needed to generate hydrogen at Nujio’qonik. The result is an improved yield of hydrogen and ammonia from a given amount of renewable power.

The green ammonia produced at Nujio’qonik will be exported to Europe and other continents as part of the project, which represents a significant step forward in the development of a global green hydrogen and green ammonia market ecosystem.

The project, which was announced during Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent state visit to South Korea, represents not only a historic milestone for international cooperation around clean energy initiatives, but also a pivotal moment for the global commercialization of hydrogen.

“The deployment of Bloom Energy’s efficient, high temperature electrolysis in the Nujio’qonik project reinforces the market readiness of Bloom’s Electrolyzer™, of which we can supply well over 2 GW per year from our existing facilities,” said Rick Beuttel, Bloom Energy’s Vice President of Hydrogen Business. “Further, it reinforces the reality that Bloom’s Electrolyzer™ produces the lowest cost green hydrogen when paired with customer processes which give off excess heat, like ammonia, methanol and the synthesis of renewable fuels. We look forward to continued growth with World Energy and SK ecoplant and additional opportunities in this space, together with industrial decarbonization of high-temperature processes like steelmaking, glass, cement and other processes.”

Bloom Energy looks forward to continuing to seek innovative applications of its products, reducing emissions and opening the doors to the future of clean hydrogen production around the globe.

The post Bloom Energy Celebrates Important Milestone in Massive Green Hydrogen Commercialization Project appeared first on Bloom Energy.

“We are knocking on doors across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”
Tim Schweikert

It is the fourth market in Asia for Bloom, along with the Republic of Korea, Japan and India. It preceded news in January 2023 that Bloom was launching marketing initiatives in Spain and Portugal and followed news in 2022 that Bloom had reached agreements to deploy its energy platform to two customers in Italy.

“Signing these deals is incredibly satisfying because we know we have a great product our customers need to secure low-carbon power,” says Tim Schweikert, senior managing director of international business development, Bloom Energy. “Our sales and business development teams are growing, and we are knocking on doors across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”

According to Bloom’s 10-K, the company’s balance of U.S. vs international business is roughly equal. The company has more energy servers deployed in the U.S., but it gets slightly more revenue from international customers.

Here’s a summary of recent key international activities:

• Spain and Portugal: Bloom announced in January 2023 that it had signed a deal with Telam Partners, a leading senior advisory firm specialized in the financing and market entry of energy, infrastructure, and technology projects, to pursue market opportunities for both the Bloom Electrolyzer and its Energy Server™.
• Taiwan: Bloom plans to start deploying its energy servers at Unimicron plants by mid-year 2023 and to have installed up to 10MW of power in the company by 2026.
• Italy: In November 2022, Bloom partnered with Cefla, a leading Italian engineering, procurement and construction company, to deploy multiple megawatts of fuel cells through 2025. In June 2022, Bloom announced a 1MW installation of fuel cells at Ferrari’s manufacturing facility and headquarters in Italy.
• Switzerland: MSC Group, the leading privately held Swiss-based shipping and logistics conglomerate, put Bloom’s energy platform on its MSC World Europa to lower emissions when the state-of-the-art cruise ship is in port. MSC World Europa was delivered from France’s Chantiers de l’Atlantique in October 2022.
• India: Bloom struck a deal with Nxtra Data in September 2022 to deploy fuel cells at Nxtra’s data center in Bengaluru. The fuel cells will initially run on natural gas but could switch to 50% hydrogen in the future.
• South Korea: Bloom began commercial operations in the Republic of Korea in 2018 and has grown its footprint to more than 400MW of deployed Energy Servers across South Korea. SK ecoplant Co., Ltd. serves as the primary distributor of Bloom systems in Korea. The two companies are collaborating on the creation of hydrogen innovation centers to advance green hydrogen commercialization. In April 2022, Bloom made its first international deployment of an electrolyzer in Gumi, South Korea.

The post Bloom’s Taiwan Deal Highlights International Growth Ambitions appeared first on Bloom Energy.

The EU will need to scale reliable sources of renewable fuel sources over the next decade to meet the increasing demand for clean and secure energy. Fuel cells can help meet their needs. Bloom Energy’s solid oxide platform is fuel-agnostic, meaning they can pair with natural gas, but also hydrogen, renewables or waste energy to generate low- or zero-emission electricity.

What is CE certification

Manufacturers seeking to sell products in the EU must have CE certification, which assures that a product has met EU health, safety, and environmental requirements.

There is a similar certification process in the United States known as Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) certification. NRTL certification is overseen by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The purpose is to ensure products meet the specifications of applicable product safety standards, including those from Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and other standards-writing bodies. Bloom Energy maintains UL certification.

What CE certification means for Bloom Energy

In 2021, Europe had a capacity of 190 megawatts of deployed fuel cells, up over 450 percent from their 41-megawatt capacity in 2018. The market for solid oxide fuel cells in Europe continues to grow. Some countries outside of the European Union accept CE marked imports, including Turkey and the countries of the European Free Trade Association: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

In addition, the countries of Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro have applied for full EU membership and are adopting EU standards. The CE mark can be used until January 1, 2023 in the United Kingdom, where Bloom Energy has already sold its solid oxide platform to Conrad Energy and Electricity North West (Construction and Maintenance) Limited (ENWCML).

Being CE certified means Bloom Energy can immediately provide its fuel-flexible, resilient energy solution to EU customers, including our most cutting-edge solid oxide fuel cell platform. It is the natural next phase in our continued growth, and brings a step closer to providing clean, reliable and affordable energy to people across the world. Bloom Energy will ship the first CE-marked product to the EU this year.

Learn more about Bloom Energy’s entry into the European Market as we chart a course to decarbonize the marine industry.

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A consensus emerged behind Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s assertion at the event that “we can walk and chew gum at the same time” while confronting this dilemma. Record-breaking oil and gas prices resulting from the current geopolitical crisis are hurting everyday people around the world, especially those in underprivileged communities. These hardships require action as government leaders seek to increase the supply of oil and gas in the short term to meet current demand, calling natural gas a critical fuel source in the energy transition. However, confronted by what Columbia Climate School Dean Jason Bordoff called the worst energy crisis since the 1970s, energy industry leaders also paid close attention to viable renewable pathways like hydrogen and “waste to energy.”

Participating in the conference for the first time, Bloom Energy made a splash on entry by highlighting its record of following exactly the approach both Secretary Granholm and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry exhorted companies to pursue. While Bloom creates and scales biomass fuel, hydrogen technology, and carbon capture, we are utilizing a mix of fuels available today, including non-combusted natural gas, to ensure our communities and businesses have a secure, reliable source of power. Joining the list of luminaries to share their insights at the 12,000-person conference were three of our Bloom Energy executives. While chief marketing officer Sharelynn Moore addressed an exclusive dinner event on hydrogen, Chuck Moesta, our vice president for gas development, headlined an Agora Studios discussion and Rick Beuttel, our vice president for hydrogen development, anchored a Hydrogen Hub session.

Their points all fit well in the context of a conference dominated by discussions of how to meet today’s critical energy needs amid crisis while also investing in the technology that will advance decarbonization and net zero goals. Meeting with and listening to policymakers and thought leaders in energy highlighted the high stakes of this historic crossroads in our energy transition and the pivotal role Bloom Energy is poised to play.

If this energy crisis shows us anything, it’s that a deliberate transition to clean energy has never been more necessary. Clean energy promises an escape from the price volatility and shortages that flummox the global fossil fuel market. Energy independence and sustainability go hand in hand.

As attendees signaled their common commitment to the energy transition, few prospects elicited the same excitement at CERAWeek as hydrogen. Speakers posited that hydrogen can play a similar role in the clean energy mix of the future that natural gas plays today, taking over much of the latter’s existing transportation infrastructure and market share. Secretary Granholm emphasized that the Department of Energy has $8 billion from the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill allocated specifically to create hydrogen hubs.

Amid the hydrogen hoopla, Rick Beuttel expertly explored the potential for hydrogen to power data centers, spotlighting the advantages that uniquely situate Bloom to lead in that arena. Rick emphasized key aspects of Bloom’s value proposition, as we provide power that is both reliable and clean. He elucidated how our future-proof platform can start with biogas and natural gas today, blend hydrogen in the near term, and then pivot to green hydrogen as it becomes more abundant and its cost curve comes down.

Meanwhile, Chuck Moesta highlighted the vast potential of another source of molecules to power the energy transition: biomass fuels. He walked through Bloom Energy’s role in leveraging them, working with customers through the energy transition, starting where they are today and transitioning to both renewable natural gas and hydrogen in the future. As he pointed out, we have the capability develop this area now, transforming it from an opportunity into an imperative.

There is still a long way to go to bridge the gap between where the world stands today and where we need to be to clinch our collective end goal of net zero carbon emissions. Varun Sivaram, senior director for clean energy and innovation in John Kerry’s office, stressed that companies today don’t face a simple choice between good, clean fuels and bad, dirty fuels. Instead, Sivaram said, the choice is between conventional fuel options and transitional options while truly clean options are developed and scaled. However, he implored companies to invest in moving from conventional options to transitional options today rather than wait around until the truly clean option become available in the future.

Bloom Energy’s first CERAWeek made clear that our company is well-situated to meet the demands of this challenging moment for the energy industry. While the event left lasting impressions on all of us who attended, we are also confident that we left an impression on the conference. We look forward to returning next year to continue to both participate in and shape the evolving discourse as we deliver on the world’s energy needs.

Learn more about the power of solid oxide fuel cells for energy security and sustainability.

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Tanya at COP 26

In a world constantly transforming to prepare for the future, it remains critical to slow down and properly address how the global climate crisis will affect generations to come. The 2020 World Population Data Sheet indicates that the world population is projected to increase to 9.9 billion by 2050, translating into nearly 10 billion people to feed, clothe, transport, employ and educate. While governments seem to be committed to a growth-driven world economy, we must also focus on action-driven solutions for global decarbonization.

In November, I had the pleasure of joining almost 40,0000 participants on the ground at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP 26 – the most well-attended COP in history.

While many of us followed popular COP trends, commitments, announcements and remarks through a multitude of media sources, being on the ground in Glasgow allowed me to capture a unique perspective on the work being done by numerous stakeholders to address the climate crisis.

COP26 resulted in agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a series of commitments to various mitigation and conservation efforts, including an anti-deforestation pledge, a methane abatement pledge, an agreement to end overseas financing of oil and gas projects, and a steel and aluminum trade agreement.

Substantial proclamations included:

• India providing the biggest fillip of the high-level segment when its prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced that the country would get 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and get to net zero by 2070.
• More than 40 countries agreeing to phase out coal-fired power. Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Indonesia and Vietnam said they would quit this dirtiest form of fossil fuels between 2030 and 2040.
• An alliance of more than 90 nations, covering two-thirds of the global economy, committing to reducing methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade.

I left cautiously optimistic that our society can implement the actions needed to aid in rebuilding a clean and healthy world with proper financing, transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean infrastructure and industries that create a variety of jobs, overcome significant inequalities and create a thriving economy.

My Week in Glasgow

Firstly, the United States made a strong and historic presence in Glasgow. As of February 2021, the United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement, thirty days after President Biden assumed office. Through this, the United States clearly signaled to the world that climate change will be a top tier domestic and international priority, putting the climate crisis at the center of U.S. foreign policy and national security. Additionally, the U.S. and China reached an agreement to boost climate cooperation, calling for stepped up efforts to close the gap in achieving the 1.5C temperature goal.

Even with these significant achievements, coverage in the media continuously highlighted the lack of “progress” being made by governments and businesses in regard to the COP commitments. Although not highly noted, I saw a particularly proactive effort and substantial progress being forged by leadership on the ground and in our communities.  I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the inspiring work being done by young people, in particular, who are fiercely passionate about protecting the future of their communities while advocating and amplifying critical issues.

Tanya, left, at a Clean Air Task Force event during COP at Blair Estate.

I enjoyed in-depth conversations with grassroot leaders who notably used COP 26 as a platform to call attention to the concerns of those who are often overlooked by the media and influencers. Whether through peer education, strategic advocacy, research and development, or energy industry event engagement, it is incredible to see young people scaling up their efforts and using their skills to accelerate climate action.

I was also particularly impressed by the coverage and awareness surrounding ‘Transport Day’ built on the commitments and strategies introduced by the UK in its Net Zero Strategy, with a focus on how best to accelerate the transition to net zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs).

Shipping accounts for about 2.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and without mitigation, emissions could grow by as much as 130% from 2008 levels by 2050 and could cost the maritime industry around trillions to meet mandated climate goals over the next 30 years.

In line with these priorities, Bloom Energy recently announced the achievement of two key milestones on its path to decarbonize a centuries-old maritime industry. This included approval for our initial design for an engineless, fuel cell-powered liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier and verification as an alternative power source for vessels as part of the American Bureau of Shipping’s (ABS) New Technology Qualification (NTQ) service.

And, of course, I can’t forget to mention the critical agreement that was reached. The Glasgow Climate Pact, combined with increased ambition and action from countries, means that 1.5C remains in sight and scales up action on dealing with climate impacts. However, it will only be delivered with concerted and immediate global efforts. COP 26 also saw a record finance raising effort for the Adaptation Fund of over $350m, around three times the previous highest level. Contributions to the Least Developed Country Fund reached $600m. From my observations, private capital will capture the bulk of funding needed to make proper investments in clean energy, but with the support from governments and policymakers in de-risking investment.

Clean Energy Priorities

The sheer number of individuals who gathered in Glasgow translates to a much anticipated, growing energy and effort towards identifying how we, as a global community, can achieve carbon reductions. Bloom Energy has positioned itself as a leader in the clean energy arena through implementation of resilient microgrids, production of hydrogen, government affairs advocacy for federal and state policy, and collaboration with industry leaders.

We are committed to providing clean, reliable energy that is upgradeable and future-proof to power a net-zero future. We are committed to be among the many businesses and communities to return to COP next year with streamlined strategies. Our topline goals include continued collaboration with current partners and policy makers to direct clean energy ambitions into actions, while supporting the transition to clean, affordable, equitable, secure, and resilient energy systems.

There was a sense of urgency coming out of COP 26 that we’re not there yet and have a challenging road ahead; however, there is increasing global momentum and the realization that governments alone cannot get the job done. As we look ahead in 2022, making progress will be a collaborative effort.

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