Bloom Energy Corp. is the latest Silicon Valley “unicorn” hoping to join the likes of Dropbox Inc. DBX, -1.31% in roiling equity markets this year.
Bloom Energy BE, +0.00% has set the terms of its initial public offering, seeking to sell 18 million shares between $13 and $15 a piece to raise up to $252 million, according to a filing on Monday. Underwriters include J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Credit Suisse.
Bloom had filed the initial paperwork last month with a placeholder amount of $100 million.
Federal tax credits are essential Bloom Energy had a good reason to thaw its IPO plans after years of hand-wringing. Crucial federal tax credits for alternative energy systems were allowed to expire in December 2016, but President Donald Trump’s budget deal in February restored those credits, known as investment tax credits, or ITC, and made them retroactive to January 2017. The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Bloom had gone back to the IPO path.
The tax credits plus state tax credits and other incentives offset the price of each Bloom server and are a key component of Bloom Energy’s business model. When the tax credits disappeared, Bloom reduced its prices to make up the difference, which damaged its revenue.
For instance, Bloom Energy delivered on 166 orders in the first quarter, an increase of 39.5% compared with 119 in the year-ago period, but first-quarter product revenue increased 338%, from $27.7 million to $121.3 million.
Our product revenue was $179.8 million in 2017, an increase of 135.1% as compared to $76.5 million in 2016. Product revenue increased for 2017 relative to 2016 even though product acceptances declined by 9.5% over that same time period as the mix in financing options with which our customers chose to deploy their systems reflected a smaller portion of managed services customer purchase options (where revenue is recognized ratably) versus direct sales (where revenue is recognized up front).
For the three months ended March 31, 2018, the combined total for billings for product and installation accepted was $133.0 million, an increase of 87.0% from the billings for product and installation accepted combined of $71.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The increase was significantly greater than the 39.5% increase in associated acceptances during the same periods due to the higher average selling price to customers as a result of the reinstatement of the ITC in 2018.
Technology
The fuel cells in our Energy Servers convert fuel, such as natural gas or biogas, into electricity through an electrochemical reaction without burning the fuel. Each individual fuel cell is composed of three layers: an electrolyte sandwiched between a cathode and an anode. The electrolyte is a solid ceramic material, and the anode and cathode are made from inks that coat the electrolyte. Unlike other types of fuel cells, no precious metals, corrosive acids or molten materials are required.
To fuel the electrochemical reaction, natural gas enters the anode side, where it mixes with steam to produce reformed fuel. As the reformed fuel crosses the anode, it attracts oxygen ions from the air on the cathode side. The oxygen ions combine with the reformed fuel to produce electricity, water, heat and carbon dioxide. The water and heat get recycled to produce the steam needed to reform the fuel. This enables a highly efficient electrochemical reaction to produce electricity without any requirement for water, other than to start the system. This efficiency also results in less than half the carbon dioxide emissions for the current generation of our Energy Servers compared to the average of U.S. combustion power generation.
Cost Savings and Predictability. In contrast to the rising and unpredictable cost outlook for grid electricity, we offer our customers the ability to lock in cost for electric power (other than the price of natural gas) over the long-term. In the regions where the majority of our Energy Servers are deployed, our solution typically provides a lower cost of electricity to our customers than traditional grid power. In addition, our solution provides greater cost predictability versus rising grid prices. Moreover, we provide customers with a solution that includes all of the fixed equipment and maintenance costs for the life of the contract. With the addition of an optional integrated storage solution, Bloom can also help customers to load shift and peak shave—reducing their exposure to peak power costs from the grid. We also enable our customers to scale from a few hundred kilowatts to many megawatts on a “pay-as-you-grow” basis.
Sustainability. Bloom Energy Servers provide clean power and because they are fuel-flexible, customers can choose the fuel source that best fits their needs based on availability, cost and carbon footprint. The current generation of Bloom Energy Servers running on natural gas produce nearly 60% less carbon emissions compared to the average of U.S. combustion power generation. Bloom Energy Servers can also utilize renewable biogas to generate carbon-neutral electricity. As of March 31, 2018, approximately 9% of our deployed fleet of Energy Servers, by megawatts deployed, utilized biogas. In both cases, our Energy Servers emit virtually no criteria air pollutants, including NOx or SOx.
Bloom Energy Servers also use virtually no water in normal operation. By comparison, to produce one megawatt per hour for a year, thermoelectric power generation for the U.S. grid withdraws approximately 156 million gallons of water more than Bloom Energy Servers.
Our technology is proven with industry-leading customers. Our approach to innovation is evolutionary – every generation of our technology builds on a proven core and factors in lessons learned from our broadly deployed fleet. Our systems have been deployed with Fortune 500 customers since 2008 and have reached 312 megawatts in total as of March 31, 2018. The Bloom Energy Server has performed for our customers without disruption through natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy and the 6.0 Richter scale earthquake near Napa, California in 2014.
Our power density is also an increasingly powerful differentiator versus other solutions such as solar, which requires at least 125 times more space–which is often unavailable–to deliver the same amount of power as one Bloom Energy Server does today. For example, a single 200 kW Bloom Energy Server can be utilized to provide 95% of the customer load for an average supermarket facility. As an alternative, to provide the same amount of electricity 24/7 using solar and energy storage, over 1.1 MW of solar and 4.3 MWh of storage capacity covering over 5 acres would be required. However, a typical supermarket has available roof space of only 45,000 square feet. To fit this typical roof space, a maximum solar capacity is limited to approximately 187 kW. Thus, the limited capacity can only produce approximately 17% of the supermarket’s load requirement.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
AI
