Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE: BE) and Almo Corporation today announced they are joining forces to refurbish unused, out-of-warranty ventilators and ship them to state agencies and hospitals throughout the country, particularly as an increasing number of patients experience critical respiratory issues as a result of COVID-19.
As part of this process, Bloom is refurbishing the ventilators, while Almo is using its national logistics network to ship the ventilators to/from Bloom’s manufacturing facilities in California and Delaware for refurbishment and out to the state agencies and hospitals that need them the most.
“Our focus has always been on family — the health and safety of our local community and people of this nation is our priority now and we want to do what we can to help in this time of crisis,” said Warren Chaiken, president and CEO, Almo Corporation. “Our logistics processes are organized and efficient, which puts us in a great position to receive the refurbished ventilators from Bloom and quickly get them to state agencies and healthcare facilities so they can be immediately put to use.”
The Society of Critical Care Medicine estimates that 960,000 coronavirus patients in the U.S. may need to be put on ventilators, but there are only about 200,000 such working machines available. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, there are 12,700 ventilators in the national “stockpile.” And thousands more sit idle, having reached their end-of-service life.
Bloom is working with biomedical engineers at Stanford Health Care to test the functionality of its refurbished ventilators.
“This is our call to action,” said KR Sridhar, CEO/Founder/ Chairman, Bloom Energy. “We have to help. Manufacturing is in our DNA and we believe that it allows our country to stand strong, especially during a time of crisis and need. Like our customers and the communities we serve, we are strong and we are resilient.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom reached out to Sridhar last week for support. By Friday, the State had given Bloom Energy 24 unused ventilators that had been idle. Overnight, Bloom engineers figured out how to fix them and completely refurbished all 24 by Saturday afternoon. With that turnaround time, the Company estimates it could refurbish up to one thousand a week.
“One plus one plus one is greater than three,” said Sridhar. “Community isn’t defined just by physical proximity; it’s coming together in a time of need to act in the interest of the greater good. That’s what this partnership represents, and we certainly welcome others to join.”
Almo, a national distributor of appliances, A/V equipment, furniture and housewares, has more than 2.5 million square feet of distribution space in eight warehouses across the country.
“We’re just trying to help out,” added Chaiken, “and that’s the type of company were are. We have a very family based company, and when I heard about this through a friend of mine who knew KR, I picked up the phone and asked (KR), ‘what can we do to help?’. Fortunately, we have a great transportation/logistics team that can do this work and help out and do our part wherever we can. With our relationship with a lot of our carriers, we’ve picked up the phone with a number of them and said ‘hey, can you help out’ and right away they’ve gotten involved. We’re really pleased that everyone is helping, and the goal is to get these respirators fixed as quickly as possible and we’ll move on from there and figure out the next way we can help out.”
If you have or know of any organizations that have out-of-service ventilators, would like to partner with Bloom and Almo on this effort, or to learn more, please visit www.bloomenergy.com/ventilators, email [email protected] or reach us on our hotline: +1 (888) 544-2644
About Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy’s mission is to make clean, reliable, energy affordable for everyone in the world. The company’s product, the Bloom Energy Server, delivers highly reliable and resilient, always-on electric power that is clean, cost-effective, and ideal for microgrid applications. Bloom’s customers include many Fortune 100 companies and leaders in manufacturing, data centers, healthcare, retail, higher education, utilities, and other industries. For more information, visit www.bloomenergy.com
About Almo Corporation
For more than seven decades, Almo Corporation has served as the largest independent distributor of appliances, consumer electronics, professional Audio/Video equipment, furniture and housewares in the United States. Meeting the needs of retailers across the country, Almo operates nine regional distribution facilities with over 2.5 million square feet of warehousing.
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