Bloom Energy builds fuel-cell microgrids for hospitals in California

Bloom Energy has announced two new fuel-cell projects, which will support patients affected by the coronavirus in hospitals in California.

The company says the equipment will provide clean electricity, reducing pollution and particulate matter by more than 99% compared with existing combustion-based power generation sources.

The systems replace diesel generators, which produce particulates and more than ’40 toxic air contaminants’.

In the first project at the Vallejo site, Bloom has deployed a fuel-cell microgrid capable of powering a field hospital in its car park – the firm already has 1,200kW of energy equipment powering the main hospital.

The clean energy company has also installed a 400kW fuel-cell-based microgrid at Sleep Train Arena, the former home of the Sacramento Kings basketball team, to power a training facility on-site that will hold approximately 100 hospital beds.

KR Sridhar, Bloom Energy Founder, Chairman, and CEO, said: “Solving complex technical problems is in our DNA and it is gratifying to the Bloom team that the energy solutions we have spent years developing can be especially useful in this time of national crisis.

“In the future, we will be able to use this solution for other rapid deploy scenarios for emergency management.”