A Peek Inside The Bloom Box
This coming Wednesday, Bloom Energy will debut its "Bloom box," a potentially revolutionary energy generating device. As "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl reported, several large companies in Californa - including Google and eBay - have been putting the Bloom box to the test.
Before Stahl, the Bloom box had been out of sight to the media. The company's CEO, K.R. Sridhar, gave "60 Minutes" a peek at his invention.
The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?
Full Segment: The Bloom Box
Web Extra: The Magic Box
Web Extra: Plug-In Power Plant
Web Extra: Naming The Bloom Box
Web Extra: A Skeptic's View
"Nobody has seen this before," Sridhar told Stahl. "This is just a steel frame around an insulation that keeps all the heat inside, to utilize it how we want to utilize it...for, the 30,000 square foot office building."
"[It] Would have four of these things," he explained. "And the electricity from all four will get combined and come out as a single outlet."
"Wow, and if this were in my house it would supply the energy for everything?" Stahl asked. "Air conditioning, heat?"
"This would more than supply…much larger than what you need," Sridhar said. "Single-family house would be less than a quarter of the size of this box. And it cannot just be in your garage. It can be outside next to your air-conditioning unit."