In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that’s inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.
You’ll generate your own electricity with the box and it’ll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines. It has a lot of smart people believing and buzzing, even though the company has been unusually secretive
K.R. Sridhar, founder of the Silicon Valley clean tech start-up Bloom Energy, says he’d like to see his company’s Bloom Box fuel cell technology lighting up most American households within the next 10 years.
Mr. Sridhar, who has already raised about $400 million to produce his boxes, can bring expensive fuel cell technology to the masses.
“The buzz is sort of a mix of excitement and befuddlement,” says Joel Makower, executive editor of Greener World Media. “It has to do with the fact that this is by no means the first fuel cell company to promote clean energy.”
To succeed where others have failed, he says, Bloom Energy will have to show its fuel cell technology is cheap enough for consumers while being adaptable enough for big business.
As the Next Big Future blog pointed out, the Connecticut company Fuel Cell Energy has been installing fuel cell units since the 1990s, but lost $71 million last year.
Sridhar provided the first inside look at his Bloom Box, which contains stacks of fuel cells that generate electricity. He expects his boxes will cost about $3,000 for consumers. Currently, several large technology companies, such as Google and eBay, have been using Bloom Boxes in limited capacity.
If Bloom can achieve the $3,000 home unit, according to Fuel Cell Today, that’s a “big improvement from the $800,000 box of today.” What’s more, according to the trade industry website, other bigger energy companies may be more capable of producing less-expensive fuel cell units and beat Bloom Energy to the market.
But Bloom Energy isn’t aiming for the home market just yet. It would appear to be going after large companies, many who can take advantage of state and federal clean-energy incentives to offset the high price of the boxes, and then branching out to the residential market.
How the Bloom Box system works, each “power plant-in-a-box” come chock full of thin fuel cells, bundled and packaged into an outdoor-safe case. The individual cells soak up oxygen on one side, “and fuel on the other. The two combine within the cell to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity”. “There’s no need for burning or combustion” but it still requires some form of fuel to work. What kind is up to the owner.
“Our system can use fossil fuels like natural gas. Our system can use renewable fuels like landfill gas, bio-gas,” Sridhar says. “We can use solar.”
In some cases, CO2 is still being emitted by whatever power is feeding the Bloom Box. Rather than calling this new device “zero emission energy,” maybe it’s better to think of it as a booster pack for already-green sources and as an impressive new filter for dirty ones.
How does installation work?
Bloom Energy says hooking up one of its $700,000 to $800,000 Boxes is simple. “It takes one guy on a forklift and one technician on the ground to install it,” explains a Bloom Energy employee in one of CBS’s Web exclusive clips. “[The forklift] brings the box up and it gets guided into place and as we lift it into place, we’re gonna make three simple mechanical connections and connect the box and start it up.”
What’s next?
Bloom Energy’s website currently shows a ticking clock, counting down until the company’s official coming-out party Wednesday. Bloom Box customer eBay will host the event at its California headquarters, where several Bloom Boxes have supplied power for months now. The VIP invite list reportedly includes former secretary of state and Bloom board member Colin Powell and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
