On October 16, 2013, Bloom Energy celebrated the opening of its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Newark, Delaware. Watch the video to meet the Bloom Energy Delaware team members!
Video Synopsis
Bloom Energy Celebrates Opening its Delaware Manufacturing Center
Video length: 7:10
Speakers
- Barry Sharp, Delaware Plant Manager, Bloom Energy
- KR Sidhar, Chief Executive Officer, Bloom Energy
- Frank Bonsu, Assembly Manufacturing Supervisor, Bloom Energy
- Jack Markell, Former Governor of Delaware
- Christina Tan, Sr. Energy and Environmental Policy Manager, Bloom Energy
- Ashay Javadekar, Chemical Engineer, Bloom Energy
- Patrick Harker, Previous President of the University of Delaware
- Bill McHenry, Global Head of Property Operations, JPMorgan Chase
- Katherine Neebe, Chief Sustainability Officer, Duke Energy
Transcript
Barry Sharp:
I’m Barry Sharp, I’m the plant manager for the Delaware facility. So the three directives that I was given, create the manufacturing facility of the 21st century, and to create a workforce of the 21st century, and to become an integral part of the Delaware community as a company. We had groundbreaking last April, and since then we’ve completed the design of the building. We actually started putting footers in for the structural steel in December, right, two weeks before Christmas. And we were able to move into to the east side of the building and start training our new workforce in the 1st of May. So we have a strong foundation right now to be able to grow the scope and the capacity and the skill level of this workforce to be able to meet what our demands are in the future.
KR Sridhar:
When I see a factory like this, it’s very difficult for me to conceal or adequately convey the pride that I feel. This is an extremely proud manufacturing workforce out here in this state, rich history, lot of tradition.
Frank Bonsu:
My name is Frank Bonsu, my job title is the assembly manufacturing supervisor. I spent almost three years working at this very site, where Chrysler used to be. And again, once the plant announces closure, a lot of us moved on. And so I moved on to stay in this industry. It’s very exciting to be back at the very site where once I used to work at, and I think we can make history here. When people look back with Bloom coming to Delaware, it is sort of like a rebirth of manufacturing for the state of Delaware. And I wanna be part of that history
Jack Markell:
When I listen to KR speak, and when I see what I thought was a great video of the employees here at Bloom, I think to myself, that’s the new face of manufacturing in America. And we have it right here in Delaware. Now there are two ways of saying that sentence. We have it right here in Delaware, or we have it right, here in Delaware. And when I see that video and I see Frank, I mean, unbelievable story. He used to work right here at Chrysler moved away, and he comes back because there’s a new opportunity in this new type of manufacturing. What a story.
Christina:
I’ve been in Delaware for 14 years. And I used to actually be a supplier to the Chrysler plant that used to be on this site. So for me, it’s exciting to have a new manufacturer here that has a promising future and a longevity that they’re bringing back to Delaware. The first time that we actually had a truckload of finished product to ship to our customer, we all got a picture together. For it to actually come out to the east coast and see our product in the field is really exciting. It’s been so much fun, I’m so happy to be at Bloom. I can’t express enough how great the people have been here, and the people in Sunnyvale, and just the excitement for having a new manufacturer in Delaware that’s got a long-term future.
Jack Markell:
And you multiply that story, Christina, you know, she has seen what manufacturing has looked like for a long time in this country. And now she sees what manufacturing is going to look like in the future. And we have an opportunity to build a new face of manufacturing right here in Delaware, working with a first-class partner that has first-class people with first-class customers. That’s where we wanna be.
Ashay Javadekar:
Before joining Bloom, I was a graduate student. So I received my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, the Chrysler plan for function. I saw the plan going down and the Bloom factory coming up during my graduate studies. There is a picture of lights in the world that we have in the lobby. Someday I would like to see the whole world lit up in that picture. That basically gives, gives us motivation and motivates us to work for Bloom.
Patrick Harker:
What you see, and really what I think will make organizations successful in this 21st century, is partnership, the power of partnership, of working together. And what you see behind us are the fruits of that kind of partnership. From the very beginning, we at UD knew this campus would grow, it would thrive, it would put dollars and jobs back into our economy. So having a resource like Bloom, right here, is invaluable to us. And in the video that Barry played earlier, you saw one of Bloom’s senior engineers, employee number two, Ashay. As you saw, he earned his both Master’s and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering right here at the University. And he’s now helping Bloom grow, designing next-generation energy solutions. And what’s amazing, as you saw in the video and brought a tear to my eye, he’s doing it on his home campus, his Alma mater. He’s making that future happen right here at UD. That’s really powerful. That’s what we want.
Bill McHenry:
But I’m very happy today to announce that we are going to enter into a partnership with Bloom energy, to do an installation here in Delaware. We’re doing that because we have every faith in the technology, we have every faith in KR, in his team, and we have every faith in the people that are building the technology for KR.
Katherine Neebe:
Working with Bloom energy, we’ve been able to expand our alternative energy portfolio to include fuel cell technology, and we’ve now installed them in 44 locations. Our Northeast pilot expansion continues that fuel cell journey and provides a cleaner alternate source of power for our stores here in the Northeast. In addition, the program with its ability to operate when the power grid is not functioning, allows us to keep our stores running and serve our communities. We make a promise to our customers to provide everyday low prices and everything we do supports that promise. Thank you to Bloom for helping us to deliver upon that promise and congratulations on this exciting new facility.