The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?

60 Minutes: First Customers Say Energy Machine Works And Saves Money

(CBS)  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 - until now.

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

K.R. Sridhar invited "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl for a first look at the innards of the Bloom box that he has been toiling on for nearly a decade.

Looking at one of the boxes, Sridhar told Stahl it could power an average U.S. home.

"The way we make it is in two blocks. This is a European home. The two put together is a U.S. home," he explained.

"'Cause we use twice as much energy, is that what you're saying?" Stahl asked.

"Yeah, and this'll power four Asian homes," he replied.

"So four homes in India, your native country?" Stahl asked.

"Four to six homes in our country," Sridhar replied.

"It sounds awfully dazzling," Stahl remarked.

"It is real. It works," he replied.

He says he knows it works because he originally invented a similar device for NASA. He really is a rocket scientist.

"This invention, working on Mars, would have allowed the NASA administrator to pick up a phone and say, 'Mr. President, we know how to produce oxygen on Mars,'" Sridhar told Stahl.

"So this was going to produce oxygen so people could actually live on Mars?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Sridhar replied.

When NASA scrapped that Mars mission, Sridhar had an idea: he reversed his Mars machine. Instead of it making oxygen, he pumped oxygen in.

He invented a new kind of fuel cell, which is like a very skinny battery that always runs. Sridhar feeds oxygen to it 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, and no need for power lines from an outside source.

In October 2001 he managed to get a meeting with John Doerr from the big Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.

"How much do you think, 'I need to come up with the next big thing'?" Stahl asked Doerr.

"Oh, that's my job," he replied. "To find entrepreneurs who are going to change the world and then help them."

Doerr has certainly changed our world: he's the one who discovered and funded Netscape, Amazon and Google. When he listened to Sridhar, the idea seemed just as transformative: efficient, inexpensive, clean energy out of a box.

"But Google: $25 million. This man said, 'How much money?'" Stahl asked.

"At the time he said over a hundred million dollars," Doerr replied.

But according to Doerr that was okay.

"So nothing he said scared you?" Stahl asked.

"Oh, I wasn't at all sure it could be done," he replied.

[oaera]

Renewable energy is very important nowadays especially that the traditional energy sources are getting used up. It's a good thing if there will be more number of investments for it. http://refillenergy.com/?page=about

[zhenghui11]

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, http://www.wholesaleeshop.com.au/Touch-Screen-LCD-Monitor/ 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 - until now.

[zhenghui11]

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, http://www.wholesaleeshop.com.au/Touch-Screen-LCD-Monitor/ 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 - until now.

[alyceobvious]

"The recent "60 Minutes" piece on the "Bloom Box" energy cell technology (with the intriguing, if slightly misleading, tag line: First Customers Say Energy Machine Works and Saves Money) is a prime example of the kind of problematic reporting that makes people feel less compelled to take immediate action. In the beginning of the report, K.R. Sridhar, Bloom Box inventor, tells "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl that it will require two Bloom Boxes (which cost $700,000 each in their current stage of development ... how could its first customers - FedEx and Google - possibly be saving money?) to power a single American household, while it will require only one box for European households, and one box for every four homes in Asia. Never is it suggested in the article that perhaps Americans could seek ways to become comfortable with using less - instead, it is assumed that we will simply need more expensive technology to support our current style of living. The viewer is A) not invited to examine his or her own consumption, and B) may conclude that some green magic-bullet technology is off in the future somewhere - someday it will become affordable and accessible enough, but for the present moment there's nothing that can be done."

for the rest of this response to the 60 minutes piece on the bloom box, please visit http://www.truthout.org/change-is-dead-long-live-change57879

[gr0124]

this BLOOMBOX is a huge thing. The industry coming out of this will be bigger than computer industry. The technology is working. Big successfull companies are using this

[tuthdoc]

How is it that teaching some hospitals are ignoring working hour regulations for residents. http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/dutyHours/dh_index.asp
It hurts when my daughter calls on the phone crying after 32 hour shifts. You have probably addressed this in the past.

[Funky-President]

You jumped into the whole WMD fiasco because you were duped. We did it, same with torture. I once trusted Colin, no more .

PUBLISHED SEPT 4, 2001.

nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/04GERM.html ?pagewanted=all


Earlier this year, administration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to engineer genetically a potentially more potent variant of the bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease ideal for germ warfare."

[Funky-President]

I bet we could make electricty with all the enhanced ANTHRAX we made but the government wont admit we have it. All our energy needs could be met forever if they would just tell us the truth!

[secwind]

Wait a second, I jumped in with both feet and heart and mind into the "weapons of mass destruction" fiasco because of Colin Powell holding up a little toy semi truck to the news media a few years ago, remember? Now "I have seen the technology and it works," former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, he joined Bloom's board of directors last year. I'm sorry once bit twice shy. When it is too good to be true, it probably isn't. Looks like another chemical process to me, simply a bit more efficient. I'll wait.

[fshnboz]

The true (and many) problems with this story is how this device is simply a battery that still uses fuel and will still cause emisssions and will still end up in a landfill. What is truly sad is how although there are many people working on energy devices, there is one man in California who has DEVELOPED A DEVICE THAT WILL CREATE ENERGY FROM THE VACUUM, (space-time), and how his (his name is Jim Boswell out of Fresno) device will create more than enough energy for any home, commercial building, governmental building and even 200+ megawatt power plants of true and completely clean energy without using fuel, batteries,solar, wind, oil, water or any other consumable resource. His other devices include a fuel less vehicle motor is the same while creating massive amount of horsepower. His airplane device can power anything from a small aircraft to a commercial jet without the use of any consumable resource. I have seen one small prototype he made that was a "Predator type" of unmanned aerial vehicle by remote and the plane has a vertical takeoff, then fly's amazing fast. THE VERY SAD PART IS THIS GUY DOESN'T HAVE NASA, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS OR BIG MONEY CONTACTS so THE PEOPLE will continue to suffer and no one will hear about this guy or his devices that would create millions of jobs, lower emissions and help get our country out of debt. But 60 minutes didn't do a story on this guy, just those who have the contacts and on a device that will NEVER be the answer. The people of our country and our world deserve better. Our government and 60 minutes should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring the true devices and the real people right here who have what it takes to save our country and benefit the world.
Shame!

The sad part you lament is a fact of life!
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air"
-Thomas Gray (1716-1771) ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD.

[alyceobvious]

the fundamental problem - mentioned in the beginning of the piece but never addressed - is that americans use TWICE the energy of their european counterparts, and FOUR TIMES as much as asians. why are so few people addressing the underlying issue - that americans need to start USING LESS?

sure, this fuel cell could turn out to be the next big thing...but meanwhile is looks like just one more expensive "gadget", another potential magic bullet. it's one more way to "buy" our way out of the environmental crisis, and yet another excuse for folks to put off doing anything until the perfect technology arrives.

we have all the technology we need to cut our addiction to fossil fuel IMMEDIATELY - we just need to look for more efficient ways to start living our lives NOW. conservation is the most obvious, simple, cheap, immediate, and constructive method we have available to us.

[alyceobvious]

there's a "USE HALF NOW CAMPAIGN" on facebook - please come join the movement to JUST USE LESS!

[prenoir]

The reason we Americans use FOUR TIMES as much energy as Asians is because we can.