The Valley’s fuel cell startup Bloom Energy has now raised over $1.1 billion, according to a report. While Bloom has gotten strong traction, particularly with data center operators, fuel cell manufacturing is difficult and capital intensive business. Read more »
Verizon is making its largest commitment to clean power to date with a planned $100 million investment into installing solar panels and fuel cells at its facilities. The company joins the league of Apple and Google with its aggressive investments in distributed, renewable energy. Read more »
An east coast power company and a Connecticut utility have signed onto a large fuel cell project that will be built in the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, using fuel cells from FuelCell Energy. The move is rare for a utility in the U.S. Read more »
Apple has decided to more than double the size of its fuel cell project at its data center in North Carolina, making it — once again — the largest out there that isn’t owned by a utility. For awhile eBay was holding that title. Read more »
According to Bloom Energy’s third quarter earnings, uncovered by Fortune, Bloom is still losing money every quarter, but hopes to become profitable in 2013. Read more »
Advanced Equities, a controversial investment group in Chicago, is closing up its broker-dealer operations, reports Fortune. The firm had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cleantech startups in recent years, but recently settled charges with the SEC, hurting its reputation and costing it $1 million. Read more »
Will Advanced Equities’ charges from the SEC, and subsequent settlement, linger as an issue for Bloom Energy? As part of the settlement, Advanced Equities has to attempt to accommodate any investor in the fund in question if they want to sell the securities. Read more »
The power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy on the east coast highlight the needs for a much greater investment in smart grid technology, energy storage systems, clean power, and ultimately a move to a more decentralized power grid architecture. Read more »
EBay’s decision to install 6 megawatts of fuel cell capacity at its Utah data centers marks a shift in thinking toward on site power generation for the modern data center and using the grid as backup power. Read more »
AT&T is now Bloom Energy’s largest corporate customer and has doubled its previously announced fuel cell deal. The news is the latest win for Bloom Energy as it continues to brings in tech customers that want to power facilities and data centers. Read more »
Renewable energy proponents haven’t always considered the natural gas industry an ally. But a natural gas lobby hopes to change that by pitching an idea that it says will benefit both sides. Read more »
Electric car maker Fisker Automotive has managed to raise $100 million of its planned $150 million round, bringing the company’s funds to a eye brow raising $1.2 billion. Advanced Equities led the fund raise. Read more »
Investment group Advanced Equities has agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges that it misled investors while raising funds for an alternative energy company in Silicon Valley back in 2009 and 2010. That company in question is reportedly fuel cell maker Bloom Energy. Read more »
Will Microsoft be the latest Internet company to buy fuel cells from Bloom Energy to provide power for its data centers? Microsoft says it is looking for backup power sources that could use natural gas and could replace its diesel generators. Read more »
Developers of renewable-energy projects frequently spend more time obtaining permits than the actual projects. Such delays — often unanticipated — pose serious financial risks. But several key steps will help developers navigate successfully through the thicket of nonuniform regulations, jurisdictions, and lawsuits that await them. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Bloom Energy, a Valley startup that makes fuel cells, says it’s about half way to reaching profitability, and is doubling its installed units and revenues every six months. How long until the company makes it to break even? Read more »
Massive thunderstorms knocked out Amazon’s web services on Friday night and the cloud giant was still struggling to get service back up on Saturday. To me the news raises the question: is it time for data center operators to more seriously investigate off grid options? Read more »
eBay just one-upped Apple’s data center fuel cell farm. On Thursday the commerce giant announced that it is building additional capacity at its data center in Utah and it plans to power that new capacity with 30 fuel cells from Bloom Energy. Read more »
A non-profit government watch dog group called Cause of Action has filed a lawsuit accusing Delaware Governor Jack Markell and the Delaware regulatory agency Delaware Public Service Commission of cronyism with fuel cell maker Bloom Energy. Read more »
Advanced Equities, an investment and brokerage firm that has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cleantech firms in recent years, could see its CEO and co-founder resign as early as this week, according to a report in DowJones VentureWire. Read more »
Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is raising another $150 million at a pre-money valuation of $2.7 billion, according to DowJones VentureWire. If closed, Bloom Energy will have raised $800 million over its 11-year lifetime. Read more »
We were wondering where Apple and Bloom Energy were planning on getting all that biogas to run the large fuel cell farm at Apple’s North Carolina data center. According to a filing with FERC, Apple will get the biogas from landfills. Read more »
Last month I exclusively reported that Apple was buying fuel cells from Bloom Energy for its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Well, on Monday morning Bloom Energy has finally confirmed that yes, it is supplying fuel cells for Apple’s data center, reports CNET. Read more »
On the occasion of the groundbreaking of Bloom Energy’s new east coast factory, the company gives us a rare video interview detailing its next-gen fuel cell tech, which has double the power in the same footprint, and is 20 percent more efficient than its older tech. Read more »
Buried in last week’s catfight between Apple and Greenpeace over the energy sourcing for Apple’s new North Carolina data center and how clean it would be, was a surprising fact — that the conversation between Apple and Greenpeace was happening at all. Read more »
At first glance biogas — gas that is produced by the breakdown of organic matter — and data centers that are powering the world’s always-on websites don’t seem like a clear fit. But some data center operators are researching ways to use biogas and here’s why: Read more »
According to a filing with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, Apple’s fuel cell farm at its data center in North Carolina could start operating by June and will use twenty four 200 kW fuel cells. Read more »
Bloom Energy’s fuel cells could revolutionize data center power architecture, says Bloom Energy’s new data center guru, Peter Gross, who joined the company this week as the Vice President of Mission Critical Systems. Read more »
Silicon Valley’s fuel cell maker Bloom Energy has launched a new practice focused on data centers, the company announced on Wednesday. To lead the group, Bloom Energy has brought on Peter Gross, who co-founded data-center firm EYP Mission Critical Facilities, which was bought by HP. Read more »
The fact that two Silicon Valley-backed Bay Area companies appear to be the tech vendors behind Apple’s new pioneering clean power push at its massive data center in North Carolina shows that the greentech venture ecosystem can work — it just takes a long time. Read more »
I’ve heard from a couple sources that fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is the supplier behind Apple’s planned massive 5 MW fuel cell farm to be built at its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Read more »
Apple discloses in an environmental report that it plans a 20 MW solar farm and 5 MW fuel cell project for its data center in North Carolina. Those are sizable clean energy projects. Read more »
FuelCell Energy is showing off what it says is the largest fuel cell park in the world: an 11.2 MW project with Korean power producer POSCO Power in Daegu City, South Korea. It was built on one acre of land. Read more »
Looks like Groupon will go public on Friday morning at $20 per share, giving it a valuation of $12.6 billion for its online coupon business. Let’s compare it to some of the greentech startups and big energy firms and try not to get disturbed. Read more »
Now that Japan, Germany and other European countries have started to move away from nuclear plans, large fuel cell makers like FuelCell Energy are seeing an uptick in interest in those countries. That’s what FuelCell Energy CEO and President Chip Bottone told me in a recent interview. Read more »
The trials and tribulations of the solar industry dominated the third quarter as warnings about a storm of dangerous market forces in the industry finally reached an outcome with Solyndra’s bankruptcy. But not all was dismal for the cleantech industry during the quarter. Car sharing continues to reduce resource consumption, and much capital flowed to that sector. On the data center side of the industry, Google provided insight into exactly how much energy the tech giant uses, as well as the carbon footprint of its data centers. Companies mentioned in this report include Solyndra, Zipcar, Airbnb and Silver Spring Networks. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Venture capital investing in cleantech companies was up slightly in the third quarter of 2011, but still continues to focus on large follow-on rounds as investors’ more capital-intensive companies are maturing and need more capital to scale up, and in some cases, reach a commercial stage. Read more »
There’s more confirmation out on Thursday of fuel cell maker Bloom Energy’s latest $150 million in new VC funds, and reportedly, the round is at a $2.7 billion pre-money valuation. Read more »
California regulators have made significant changes to a state incentive program that will impact electric customers who use technology such as fuel cells. The changes could have a big impact on Bloom Energy, which has been a major beneficiary of the SGIP. Read more »
ClearEdge Power might not have amassed the funding of Bloom Energy, but it’s getting up there. On Tuesday fuel cell maker ClearEdge Power announced that it has raised a series E round of funding of $73.5 million. Read more »
