• Problem: Energy Peak Demand
  • Electricity is produced at utilities and at peak periods, there may not be enough for all customers or the capacity needed for peak periods leads to overinvestment in infrastructure that mostly is not in use.
  • Up to 15% of the energy can be lost during transmission to the customer
  • Electricity plants dependent on coal power emit more CO2 than other types of energy generation.
• Technology
  • Fuel cell allows for large industry customers to generate and store energy on site or close to their buildings.  Allows customer to have a backup power source if there is a grid failure or during peak periods.
  • Fuel cells can use run on natural gas or methane and create less CO2 emission than coal powered electric plants.  In the case of methane, the fuel cell could use the waste product of the industry to generate electricity.
• Stakeholders
  • Large retailers: Home depot
  • Industrial customers that have methane waste
  • Utilities that want customers to have a demand response strategy for peak periods
• Implementation Steps
  • Design stacks to last longer and need less maintenance or sell with low hassle maintenance packages.
  • Promote the technology to industrial customers that have methane and biogas as waste
  • Partner with utilities to offer price discounts to customers who adopt the fuel cell technology

http://fortune.com/2016/06/24/apple-home-depot-turn-to-bloom-energy-as-its-tech-advances/