Jul 18 2013
SoftBank Group. and Bloom Energy Corporation. today announced the establishment of a new 50/50 Joint Venture that intends to address Japan's urgent need for clean, reliable, and affordable electricity.
The new company, Bloom Energy Japan Limited (Tokyo, Japan, Representative Director and CEO: Shigeki Miwa, hereafter “Bloom Energy Japan”), will deploy Bloom Energy's unique, rapidly deployable Energy Servers (Bloom Energy Server) and offer the generated electricity from the Servers to customers seeking to take control of their energy destiny while also contributing to Japan's energy security, sustainability, and economy.
Bloom Energy has been generating power for customers in the United States, including Walmart, AT&T, Google, eBay, The Coca Cola Company, and many others, and has generated over 700,000,000 kilowatt hours over the last 5 years. By using the Bloom Energy Server, these companies can efficiently generate their own electricity onsite, reduce their carbon & water footprint while lowering energy costs and mitigating power outage risks.
“I am delighted that we are establishing this Joint Venture with Bloom Energy, an innovation leader in energy. By providing Bloom Energy's breakthrough technology through this new Joint Venture, SoftBank will further empower the adoption of innovative, clean energy,” said Masayoshi Son, Representative of SoftBank Group.
“Empowering customers in Japan to buy electricity on their terms is another significant step on our journey to change the way energy is generated and consumed in the world,” said Dr. KR Sridhar, Principal Co-Founder and CEO of Bloom Energy.
The damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, the incident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the subsequent closure of nuclear power plants have created a significant electrical power deficit. Subsequent energy imports have greatly expanded Japan's trade deficit while consumer electricity prices have recently escalated by double digits.
Bloom Energy Japan was created to provide a reliable electricity alternative that is at once safe, clean, affordable, and compact, and provides electricity 24/7. With the establishment of this Joint Venture, SoftBank adds distributed baseload power from Bloom Energy and further encourages the domestic use of clean energy complementing its existing portfolio of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.