Bloom Energy believed to be behind Apple's 5MW fuel cell farm
Bloom Energy, maker of the much-hyped "Bloom Box" energy server, is believed to be the supplier behind Apple's planned 5-megawatt fuel cell farm in North Carolina.
Up to 50 Bloom Boxes, each capable of supplying 100 killowatts of power, would meet Apple's advertised 5-megawatt capacity at the new fuel cell farm. Citing a few sources, GigaOm reported on Friday that Bloom Energy and its Bloom Boxes are in fact planned to be the power source at the forthcoming plant.
The new fuel cell farm is set to run on biogas, or methane from organic waste, as well as oxygen. Apple revealed last month that its Maiden, N.C., data center will feature the largest nonutility fuel cell installation in the U.S.
The fuel cell farm will provide more than 40 million kWh of 24x7 baseload renewable energy annually. When paired with the 20-megawatt solar farm Apple is also building, the data center will be the largest in its class with LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Friday's report also claimed that beyond Apple's green data center in North Carolina, the company has also allegedly partnered with Bloom for "a few" fuel cells that are found on the company's Cupertino, Calif. campus.
The rumored partnership with Bloom is also seen as likely because the company is one of only a few that would even be capable of building such a large array of fuel cells. Bloom has previously secured a deal to build a 30-megawatt fuel cell farm with 300 Bloom Boxes in Delaware.
Apple first announced plans to build its massive $1 billion server farm in Maiden in 2009. The facility opened last spring, and it helps to power Apple's online operations, including the iCloud umbrella of Web applications and services, and the iTunes Store that serves up applications, music, movies, books and more.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
Seems odd that it would be Bloom. They seem to be looking at installations closer to 2MW peak from what I can tell. Also didn't think they ran on swamp gas... but I guess it would just impact efficiency.
I have heard of municipalities powering their sewage treatment plants with fuel cells running on the gases released from the chemical reactions of their treatment tanks. I don't understand yet how this is applicable to a data center.
DFC3000 (2.8 MW)
FuelCell Energy?s DFC3000® system is the largest of the DFC® power plant fleet, capable of providing high-quality baseload power up to 2.8 MW with 47% electrical efficiency. The power plant consists of six matched modular skids, and due to its innovative design, can be modified depending on the power requirements of the facility.
Bloom Energy, maker of the much-hyped "Bloom Box" energy server, is believed to be the supplier behind Apple's planned 5-megawatt fuel cell farm in North Carolina.
Why wouldn't you use 2 FuelCell Energy 3000's from the leader in FuelCell technology?
Well that settles it. It is definitely Bloom since a representative from the competition has confirmed that they did not get the contract.
Of all Apple's decisions, this should be one its competitors should strive to copy. And I don't think Apple would mind if they did so.
There's an abundance of biogas coming from Microsoft's executive suite.
Of all Apple's decisions, this should be one its competitors should strive to copy. And I don't think Apple would mind if they did so.
Google has been toying with them since at least 2010. ATT signed a contract with Bloom last year. I thinl Microsoft is also involved in some way, or perhaps it's Bill Gates himself as an investor? Can't find the citation for that one.
If they can lead in green tech, other companies might follow.
It makes a lot of sense to add baseline power to the intermittent solar sources.
Good for Apple.
If they can lead in green tech, other companies might follow.
It makes a lot of sense to add baseline power to the intermittent solar sources.
No offense to Apple, but they're following here, not leading.
In this case Google did this first, they are credited as being the first customer of Bloom Energy.
I agree. They did lead here.
No offense to Apple, but they're following here, not leading.
Again, correct. See Bloom's customer list here -- Apple hasn't made their website yet: http://www.bloomenergy.com/customer-fuel-cell/
Again, correct. See Bloom's customer list here -- Apple hasn't made their website yet: http://www.bloomenergy.com/customer-fuel-cell/
Well that was probably part of the contract. Secrecy is their MO. I don't think we ever definitively learned who got the server hardware/software or backbone network provider contracts for the datacenter either. The article said it opened last spring but I did some trace routing and could not find any Apple services that lead to North Carolina.
cancer lung
this will go down well with ordinary geeks, i am sure. There have already been protests by people painting swastikas on a german embassy, along with the slogan ?1941-2011 the enemy is the same?. The course on which the eu seems set is very disturbing.
cancer lung
go away.
Well that was probably part of the contract. Secrecy is their MO. I don't think we ever definitively learned who got the server hardware/software or backbone network provider contracts for the datacenter either. The article said it opened last spring but I did some trace routing and could not find any Apple services that lead to North Carolina.
Nothing official. This is the closest to a confirmation that I've come across.
http://www.winsupersite.com/blog/sup...d-alone-139431
Nothing official. This is the closest to a confirmation that I've come across.
http://www.winsupersite.com/blog/sup...d-alone-139431
Please stop putting external links in your posts. They almost always lead to MS and Google related blogs which rarely have anything to do with the quoted text or the article.
I would prefer you did not respond to my posts in such a manner since I do not want to appear complicit in your participation in the discussion.