What happened
Along with much of the market, shares of Bloom Energy (BE +2.98%) are taking a hit today. Bloom stock was down 8.2% as of 12:56 p.m. ET, near its lows of the day. Ironically, the only company-specific news today was seemingly very positive. But more macro trends were taking precedence in investors' minds today.
So what
The overall market is shunning more risky high-growth stocks in the recent sell-off. Alternative energy stocks like Bloom Energy fall into that category. And that sector is also feeling the impact from news over the weekend that President Joe Biden's proposed Build Back Better spending package will likely fail to pass. At least in its current form, Sen. Joe Manchin said he won't provide his needed support for the bill that includes $555 billion for renewable energy and clean transportation incentives to address climate change over the next decade.
Image source: Getty Images.
Yet Bloom's push into hydrogen fuel continues to make progress, regardless. Today, it announced that India's largest energy conglomerate under the authority of the government's Ministry of Power will use Bloom's electrolyzer and hydrogen fuel cell technologies for India's first green hydrogen-based energy storage project.
Now what
Bloom Energy uses solid oxide technology to produce hydrogen using electricity. When that power source is harnessed using renewable sources, it is deemed green hydrogen. In this case, the renewable energy will be produced by a local floating solar farm.
In a statement regarding the project, Bloom Energy said, "the project is designed to explore large-scale, off-grid hydrogen energy storage and microgrid projects at strategic locations throughout the country."
But progress on the company's hydrogen plans isn't enough to overcome the market's pessimism today with U.S. renewable energy companies. While the current Build Back Better proposal seems dead in the water right now, there could be other packages addressing climate change and supporting renewable energy development that surface. Today, however, investors took that news as a blow to the industry, and ignored Bloom's company-specific advancement.
