14 DAY TRIAL // Latest news from eBay representatives inform us that the company just closed a deal with fuel cell specialist Bloom Energy. The terms of the agreement: the latter is to help EBay in having its Utah facility powered by 30 fuel cell units.
For those unaware, fuel cell units are devices that generate electricity by means of a chemical reaction between hydrogen, natural gas or alcohols and various oxidizing agents.
The good thing about fuel cell units is that, as opposed to old-school batteries, they can create energy for hours on end, as long as the said chemical compounds are supplied.
In the case of eBay, biogas derived from organic waste will be used to make the fuel cell units run, reports Business Green.
Should things go as planned, the company will significantly improve on its ecological footprint.
As John Donahoe, the president and chief executive of eBay explains, such a project can be considered to be a pretty bold move on behalf of the company, but also “an investment and a risk that is worth taking.”
The same source speculates that eBay's decision to invest in green energy sources is a direct result of countless Internet-based businesses being accused by environmentalist and even ordinary folks that they rely a bit too much on coal power.
As you probably already know, coal is presently regarded as one of the planet's dirtiest energy sources.
Apparently, the said 30 fuel cell units will presumably help tone down criticism to a certain extent.
EBay is not the first company to strike such a deal with Bloom Energy. Thus, Wal-Mart, Google and Apple are also some of the latter's most recent customers.
According to The Next Web, eBay's new green energy sources will be up and running sometime in 2013, and they amount of electricity they will be producing will revolve somewhere around 1.75 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per year.