Bloom Energy has announced its very first utility-scale Combined Heat and Power (CHP) project with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) in collaboration with the SK eco plant. The new 4.2-megawatt (MW) installation in South Korea marks its new initiative to provide recovered heat.
CHP technology utilizes the electricity it generates and the excess thermal energy it emits to recover and reuse the heat that would otherwise go unused during the power generation process. The captured thermal energy, coupled with a heat recovery system that SK eco plant designed, will improve the building’s energy efficiency by providing warm water and heat to the communities living nearby the Bukpyung Recreational and Sports Center. The project is also intended to lessen CO2 emissions and is a better alternative when compared to relying on the local grid.
Construction of the new 4.2 MW utility-scale CHP installation, expected to begin later this year, will utilize Bloom’s SOFC technology. This installation will be configured in a novel Power Tower blueprint and is for making a maximum density of power in a condensed form, called the Power Tower, which will stack 1.8 MW of Bloom Energy Servers vertically in a pillar architecture.
Bloom Energy’s installation is going to be located in Donghae City. The power generated by this installation will produce highly efficient, clean, and resilient electricity of roughly 35,000 megawatt-hours per year. It will capture 4 million mega-calories of thermal energy with the help of the SK eco plant’s heat recovery system and the Power Tower.
Bloom Energy’s solid oxide technology (SOFC ) uses a non-combustion, electrochemical process that produces electricity with lesser carbon emissions when compared to the grid alternative and with almost no dangerous smog-forming particulate matter.
Bloom Energy’s mission is to make energy not only affordable for everyone but also to provide cost-effective, clean energy ideally suited for microgrid applications. Bloom Energy’s product, the Bloom Energy Server, hopes to deliver extremely reliable and resilient electric power that will be always available. Bloom Energy has many note-worthy clients such as; many Fortune 100 companies and leaders in data centers, manufacturing, healthcare, higher education, retail, utilities, and other industries.