Nick Hodge,
Publisher
April 23, 2021
What is the most powerful power plant in the world?
The answer varies depending on which specific metric you’re looking at. In terms of raw output, China’s massive Three Gorges Dam takes the cake. Its 32 turbines generate some 22,5000 megawatts of power.
But the world’s most energy-dense power plant is a lot smaller — and a lot more obscure.
The Bundang power plant in Seoul, South Korea uses stacks of fuel cells to generate 1 megawatt for every 787 square feet — achieving more than three times the density of the world’s most advanced gas turbine plants. And it does it without generating a noticeable amount of heat, pollution or even noise.
Fuel cells, which produce and store electricity by splitting and recombining energy-storing molecules like water or methane, could be an essential part of the clean energy revolution in the years ahead.
But until recently, they’ve gotten very little attention as a power source. Today, that’s changing…
Fuel Cells Are a Rapidly-Growing Source of Residential Power
Generally, discussion of fuel cell technology tends to center on its transportation applications — and to be sure, fuel cells are a promising energy source for cars.
But the little boxes can also power homes and businesses in a way that is increasingly useful to America’s ailing electric grid.
After all, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has emphasized the need for small-scale, distributed energy resources that can be built into neighborhoods. Back in February, she said in an interview with the Washington Post, “I’m very supportive of microgrids… of the ability to have distributed energy resources, community-based solar attached to a microgrid.”
Fuel cell power fits perfectly into this microgrid agenda because it’s generated by small, quiet, chemically-non-volatile boxes that can easily be built into buildings.
And one publicly-traded company has been dominating the emerging fuel cell power industry…
Bloom Energy: A Pure Play on Fuel Cells For Residential Power
Founded in 2001 and based in San Jose, California, Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE) is the world’s leading manufacturer of fuel cells for on-site electrical generation. It built the fuel cells that power the Bundang plant in South Korea, and it has also started to build decentralized fuel cell power plants in Staten Island, New York neighborhoods through deals with developers.
The company has been a growth investor darling, up as much as 450% in the past year. But that has created a situation where it is extremely overvalued by most fundamental metrics.
Fortunately, it’s not the only publicly-traded company that is working on distributed energy generation and storage solutions.
Plus, I don’t think fuel cells are the best way for investors to cash in on the Department of Energy’s grid reform ambitions.
Many other distributed energy companies have much more reasonable valuations… and will play a much larger role in the grid of the future.
The biggest winner, I think, won’t be a single power source… but instead the company that can tie all these microgrids, or virtual power plants, together and manage them.
I’ve been tracking one that is starting to sign big distributed energy contracts.
And I think its returns will be much larger than the 450% Bloom Energy just delivered.
Click here for all the details.
Call it like you see it,
Nick Hodge
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle
Nick Hodge is the co-owner and publisher of Daily Profit Cycle and Resource Stock Digest. He's also the founder of Hodge Family Office, the umbrella organization for his three premium services: Hodge Family Office, Family Office Advantage, and Foundational Profits. He specializes in private placements and speculations in early stage ventures, and has raised tens of millions of dollars of investment capital for resource, energy, cannabis, and medical technology companies. Co-author of two best-selling investment books, including Energy Investing for Dummies, his insights have been shared on news programs and in magazines and newspapers around the world.
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