Industry
Global Commerce
Fortune 500 Rank (2013)
196
Established
1995
Headquarters
San Jose, CA
Web site
Bloom Installation
500kW Installed in 2009
San Jose, CA
6MW Installed in 2013
Salt Lake City, Utah
Objective
eBay Inc. sought a cost effective, 24/7 solution that delivered clean energy, allowing them to meet both financial and environmental goals.
"eBay Inc. believes in the power of our business model to make a real difference in the world, and that includes how we embrace innovation to reduce our carbon footprint. We were proud to be an early adopter of Bloom's technology at our San Jose Headquarters back in 2009 and are thrilled to see our partnership expand to our state of the art data center in Utah. As a result, we're meeting financial and environmental goals with our projects while fueling a more energy efficient global marketplace. That's good for us, our customers and the planet."
– John Donahoe, , President and Chief Executive Officer, eBay Inc.
eBay Inc. Drives Toward a Greener, Cleaner and More Efficient Future for Commerce
eBay Inc. is a global commerce platform and payments leader. The company connects millions of buyers and sellers and enabled $175 billion of commerce volume in 2012. The company is a strong believer that a long-term commitment to sustainability and renewable energy use is both great for business and critical for the environment. In 2013, eBay Inc. committed to source at least 8% of its energy use from cleaner sources by 2015 and launched their innovative Digital Service Efficiency methodology, which tracks carbon emissions down to the transaction level—they aim to reduce carbon per transaction by 10%.
Why Bloom?
The majority of eBay Inc.'s energy consumption and environmental impact arises from the energy required to power its online engine that drives its global commerce platform. Bloom Energy and eBay Inc. worked together to design a completely new architecture that provides clean and reliable power on-site.
Implementation
The first project consists of a 500kW installation, and Bloom Energy worked with eBay Inc. to source biogas for the project—making the project 100% renewable. The Bloom Boxes are a nice complement to the company's LEED Gold-certified building at its North campus in San Jose, CA.
In September of 2013, eBay Inc. opened its data center in Salt Lake City, Utah—the first in the world to use Bloom fuel cells as primary, on-site power. The state of the art facility incorporates 30 Bloom Energy Servers, 6 MW, into the mission critical data center's energy architecture. The electric utility grid will be used only as backup. By utilizing Bloom Energy Servers—which generate on-site power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year—eBay Inc. replaced large and expensive backup generators and UPS components and will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of its new facility.
