Hill led the construction team for the manufacturing plant and the two generating stations, with Tetra Tech as architect-of-record and structural engineer. Bloom's R&D group proposed constant design tweaks as it improved its technology, and Hill worked these into an aggressive schedule. "[Bloom] was not beholden to low-bid scenarios. We used a host of varying delivery systems," says Dickenson. "We didn't want them constrained by construction requirements, so we unbridled them to bring their changes in. We integrated hundreds of owner changes—thousands maybe?"

Tom Wilson, senior scheduler with Hill, takes a wider view. "Overall, between three projects, it was probably a couple thousand changes—and that's on a small project, but we had the information. We were updating biweekly, and then that information was disseminated and everybody was on the telecon, whether it was the contractor, the guy in the field or the client. Everybody was using the information to the fullest."

For Dickinson, early buy-in from the entire team was key. "We knew we had a pretty detailed schedule, a pretty detailed buy-in, and everyone knew what was feasible when these changes came," he says.

Bloom has a temporary occupancy permit for about half of the manufacturing facility, and workers are assembling the energy servers from parts shipped in from suppliers. The energy servers are then delivered to Red Lion for installation.

This short trip is a major part of the deal that got Bloom into Delaware. In 2011, the state Assembly passed a law, SB 124, that says natural-gas fuel cells can count toward utilities' renewables mix if they were provided by a company manufacturing fuel cells in Delaware. Specifically, six fuel-cell megawatts can stand in for one solar megawatt and only for a small percentage of the total requirement.

Bloom fuel cells emit carbon dioxide and VOCs during operation, but the company claims the levels are below that of other fossil-fuel power generation. Bloom is tight-lipped about the specific levels of carbon and VOCs per energy server but has cited figures in state license applications that are lower than what is found in traditional natural-gas-fired powerplants.

Reducing Carbon Emissions

Bloom may be banking on the acceptance of natural gas as a "transition" fuel in efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In a speech on climate change at Georgetown University on June 25, President Barack Obama said, "In the medium term at least, [natural gas] not only can provide safe, cheap power, but it can help reduce our carbon emissions." While it is possible to get methane from sustainable sources such as decaying landfills, Bloom's gas is purchased on the open market as part of its deal with Delmarva. Still, power from natural gas, regardless of its source, is often touted as "cleaner," rather than clean. As Obama continued, "[Natural gas is] the transition fuel that can power our economy with less carbon pollution, even as our businesses work to develop and then deploy more of the technology required for the even cleaner energy economy of the future."

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) expressed a similar view in a statement to ENR. "Bloom Energy is marrying cutting-edge science, technology and innovation, providing Delawareans with hundreds of jobs and the state with a manufacturing facility that will be supplying clean, sustainable and affordable energy."