Bloom and Delaware's energy future

Over the past two years, Delaware has made steady progress toward cleaning up and modernizing our energy system by focusing on improving reliability, cost-effectiveness, and environmental and public health outcomes.

We are transitioning the state's legacy electric generating units into cleaner, more efficient 21st century power plants. We required NRG to install $300 million of pollution controls on Unit 4 at the Indian River Power Plant and shut down dirtier legacy units.

We worked with Calpine to convert older coal units to natural gas at the Edge Moor facility. We are also accelerating investments in energy efficiency, additional combined-cycle natural gas generation, smart grid upgrades, fuel switching, and renewable energy, including solar and offshore wind -- all of which promote economic development.

This transition is necessary to ensure that our state has sufficient reliable sources of cost-effective and low-emission electricity to meet future demand.

At the same time, moving toward a cleaner energy mix also produces significant public health benefits.

In fact, Delmarva Power and Light's most recent Integrated Resource Planning filing projects $1.8 to $4.3 billion annually in health-related cost savings by 2020.

So where does Bloom Energy fit into Delaware's clean energy future?

Bloom Energy's solid oxide fuel cell, or "Bloom Box," that could soon be manufactured by Delawareans, advances...

Delaware's energy strategy because it offers the best of two important worlds: It's both reliable and clean.

The technology provides a reliable source of electricity at a performance that exceeds traditional fossil fuel base-load generation.

In addition, Bloom is a distributed technology, which means that it can be located near load centers and avoid the typical 7 percent to 10 percent transmission and distribution losses associated with centralized generation.

So the power can be located at a business or a load pocket where it is most needed, which will help improve the resiliency of the electrical grid.

From an environmental perspective, the technology is exceptionally clean.

It uses an electrochemical reaction rather than combustion, which produces virtually none of the unhealthy smog-forming, ozone-depleting, and acid rain-causing pollutants, and significantly fewer carbon emissions than even the cleanest and most efficient natural gas plants.

Specifically, compared to coal or natural gas-fired generation, Bloom's technology produces 99 percent less nitrogen oxides, only trace amounts of sulfur dioxide, 66 percent less carbon dioxide than coal-fired plants, and 17 percent less carbon dioxide than combined-cycle natural-gas plants.

Over the 21-year project, this will equate to 8.9 million fewer pounds of nitrogen oxides, 550 thousand fewer pounds of sulfur dioxide and 900 million fewer pounds of carbon dioxide, compared with an equivalent efficient natural-gas plant.

Further, unlike traditional power plants that require cooling water towers, Bloom systems do not require water during normal operations. This reduces water consumption by 97 million gallons annually for the same amount of energy output, or two billion gallons over the lifetime of the project.

Bloom's technology can also operate on renewable fuels, including hydrogen or biogas, which will further improve environmental performance as those fuels become more readily available.

In addition to providing significant environmental benefits, Bloom will be able, pending regulatory approval, to put several hundred people to work manufacturing the fuel cells on the site of the abandoned Chrysler factory, which the University of Delaware is transforming into its new Science and Technology Park.

The Bloom Boxes built by Delawareans will not only help power Delaware homes and Delaware businesses, but could be exported across the nation and around the world.

These workers will join the growing cluster of more than 50 Delaware energy efficiency companies, 600 Delawareans currently employed in the solar industry, and hundreds more jobs that will be created by leading clean-tech manufacturers like Fisker Automotive.

Due to its strong environmental performance and significant potential for job creation, the Bloom project advances Delaware's energy strategy and fulfills the goals of Delaware's renewable portfolio standard by providing clean and reliable energy in-state and improving air quality, while leaving ample room for the robust development of solar and other technologies, creating well-paying jobs, and minimizing rate impacts -- all of which are critical components of Delaware's clean energy future.

Source: COLLIN O'MARA, Delaware Voice