Bloom shares soar as company enters South Korea’s hydrogen market

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Bloom Energy is entering the commercial hydrogen market by introducing hydrogen-powered fuel cells and electrolyzers that produce renewable hydrogen.

Bloom operates a fuel cell production plant in Newark. The company is based in San Jose, CA.

The announcement caught the attention of investors, with Bloom shares up nearly 35 percent on Tuesday.  

The price of Bloom shares is now around $18 near its original offering price in 2018.  Bloom shares soared to more than $30 a share, but fell below $3 at one point.  Bloom has reported progress in lowering the costs of producing its fuel cells that are mainly assembled in Newark.

South Korea’s hydrogen push

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The hydrogen-related products will be first introduced to the South Korean market in 2021 through an expanded partnership with SK Engineering and Construction, an affiliate of SK Group. SK is the largest gas station operator in South Korea.

Bloom’s technologies are part of South Korea’s plan to execute on its government-mandated Hydrogen Economy Roadmap, a release stated.  South Korea has focused on hydrogen as a way to power vehicles and generate power in the mountainous nation.

Hyundai, Toyota and Honda are now offering hydrogen-fueled vehicles.


Interest in hydrogen fuel has been increasing worldwide as nations look for ways to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels

Hydrogen has the ability to store electricity. Excess electricity from solar and wind could be used by an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen that in turn can be stored and later used to generate electricity.

At present, most hydrogen is produced from natural gas. 

Bloom earlier reached a deal that aims to power ocean vessels with electricity from its fuel cells.

$1 billion boost for Bloom

Bloom’s existing partnership with SK E&C has already sold 120 megawatts of fuel cells in South Korea, generating over $1 billion in equipment and future services revenue for Bloom.

“The Bloom Energy Servers are a proven market leader in clean, reliable, and resilient on-site power,” said KR Sridhar, founder and CEO of Bloom Energy. “This expansion of our product offering enables zero-carbon electricity and transportation solutions. Innovation and execution are fundamental tenets of our business and we are excited about the opportunity to advance the hydrogen economy with our long-time partner, SK E&C.”

By the end of 2020, Bloom expects to ship a 100-kilowatt pilot server to South Korea to power an SK  facility in early 2021. The second phase, a 1 MW hydrogen server installation, is targeted for  2022 deployment.

“Our three-year collaboration with Bloom Energy has reinforced to us our view that Bloom’s fuel cell technology is the best in the world,” said Jason Ahn, CEO of SK E&C. “Given the Korean government’s ambitious directive of deploying 15,000 MW of fuel cells by 2040, we forecast to sell 400 MW per year of fuel cells in the future.”

Bloom Energy’s core technology is based on research done by its founders on using electricity generated by a solar panel to produce fuel and oxygen on Mars for NASA.

Bloom Energy Servers reversed this process by taking in fuel  and air to generate electricity. Renewable  hydrogen, when produced via electrolyzer can fuel cars, power microgrids, or be injected into natural gas pipelines to reduce carbon emissions.

Millions of hydrogen-fueled vehicles envisioned

“SK Group is the leading oil and gas provider in South Korea with 3,400 gas stations,” said Ahn. “The South Korean government’s roadmap requires the construction of 1,200 filling stations to fuel 6.2 million hydrogen cars by 2040. Bloom’s electrolyzers would allow SK to play a vital role in helping to meet these targets.”

Since 2002, Bloom has been awarded 19 patents for its solid oxide electrolyzer technology. Over time, it has improved the efficiency and  reduced the cost of its products and expects this trend to continue.

“Generating low-cost hydrogen from intermittent renewables is a sine qua non for decarbonization,” said Jack Brouwer, professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) at the University of California, Irvine. “Solid oxide electrolyzers hold the greatest potential to generate low-cost green hydrogen because of their superior efficiency, rapidly declining costs, and scalability. Achieving zero emissions in many sectors will depend upon making massive amounts of renewable hydrogen. Because Bloom is the market leader in solid oxide technology, I am very encouraged by this announcement.”

Bloom’s presence in Delaware includes fuel cells that produce electricity that is fed into the Delmarva Power grid. That program has generated controversy since Delmarva ratepayers pay extra for the electricity when compared to the current price of power.

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