Once known as Ion America, California-based Bloom Energy is a company that had its roots on Mars.
At the University of Arizona, KR Sridhar, the founder and current chief executive officer of Bloom, had been asked by NASA to create a technology that could sustain life on the distant planet. They came up with a device that could make air and fuel from electricity, and create electricity from air and fuel.
After the project ended in 2001, the team decided to continue their research and start a company.
Venture capitalists John Doerr and Kleiner Perkins became the first investors in the company in 2002.
For years, their progress and goals stayed secret as they worked to perfect the technology.
Then, in 2006, the privately held company shipped a unit to the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga for testing. More field trials in Tennessee, California, and Alaska were a success, and in 2008, the first commercial fuel cell units were shipped to Google to power operations there.
Last year, with a number of large customers already buying units from a West Coast production site, the company decided it was time to tell the public what it was doing and where it was headed.
"Now we're ready to expand to the East Coast," said Josh Richman, Bloom's vice president of business development.
Current customers for on-site 'Bloom Boxes' include Google, Staples, eBay, Walmart, Cox Enterprises, FedEx, Bank of America and Coke.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011106100372
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