Bloom Box Energy Machine Unveiled

Updated 2:34 p.m. EST

Following its television debut on CBS News' "60 Minutes" last Sunday, the Bloom Box was formally introduced to the public at eBay's headquarters in San Jose, Calif.

Founder and CEO K.R. Sridhar took the stage with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who touted his state's green jobs initiatives and noted, "160 years ago people flocked to California for the Gold Rush. The same spirit is still alive and can be seen as Bloom Energy."

After running through the science behind the machine, Sridhar dropped the curtain on his invention.

"It's the plug-and-play future of electricity," he told the crowd.

Live Blog: CNET News Covers the Announcement

More about the Bloom Box at Company Site

With an estimated $400 million in venture capital and high profile advisors - famed venture capitalist John Doerr and former Secretary of State Colin Powell are on the board of directors - Bloom Energy hopes to revolutionize the energy industry, ushering in an era of cheap, relatively clean and personalized power plants.

Sridhar said he began developing the technology as part of an effort to make Mars habitable for humans. While the key technologies for sustaining life - oxygen systems, shelter, and power - developed quickly, the rocket technology didn't keep pace.

But Sridhar now sees the Bloom Box as important technology in global development - an equalizer for poorer countries with nothing like the energy infrastructures of the United States and Western Europe.

The technology is based on solid oxide fuel cells, which works like a battery but has a persistent source of fuel, such as natural gas, to keep the electricity flowing. However, at this juncture the Bloom Box is still pricey compared to cost per kilowatt for wind and solar power. The question is if and when Bloom Energy can drive down the costs to about $3,000 for a shoebox-sized fuel cell to power a house in the United States.

According to the company's press release, each box fits the size of a parking space and delivers 100kW of power.

EBay's CEO John Donahoe said that the five Bloom Boxes installed on his campus 9 months ago have saved the company more than $100,000 in electricity costs. The Bloom Boxes cost an estimated $700,000 to $800,000 each.

Executives from Google, Wal-Mart, FedEx, Staples, Coca-Cola and other blue-chip companies lauded the technology, saying it cuts both their carbon footprints and their energy costs.

California makes adopting green technologies like the Bloom Box attractive, with a 20 percent subsidy, in addition to a 30 percent federal tax break.

Other companies, such as United Technologies Corp., are working on fuel cells but cite reliability and cost as key barriers to broad adoption. Sridhar maintains that his company has come up with a solution, including a special, patented black ink that is painted on the fuel cells, which resemble floppy disks.

One attendee asked Powell - also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - whether the Bloom Box might be employed by the military.

Powell said that while he has no role in current military planning, it would be "incredibly useful" to the military since right now troops have to drag around heavy, loud generators that show up on heat maps. He said the armed forces could paint the Bloom Box camouflage.

(CBS)

Watch the "60 Minutes" Report:


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More "60 Minutes" Coverage:
Web Extra: The Magic Box
Web Extra: Plug-In Power Plant
Web Extra: Naming The Bloom Box
Web Extra: A Skeptic's View

[stavinsky-2009]

"One-sided Understanding of the Concept of "Relativity of Energy"

"The reason for misunderstanding of the source of free energy does not lie in the upper levels of physics but in its fundamental concept of "Energy". Of course energy can not emerge from nothing, there is always a source of origination and the law of conservation of energy must always be maintained...... For more information go to
sites.google.com/site/socialcapital1/Home

[patentfox]

So, what's inside the Bloom Box? Take a look at one of their patent applications at: http://www.patentfox.com

[rockcutr]

Just another hunk of junk that no real practical homeowner can use. Any real technology gets buried in the rubble by the oil dawg watchdogs. Their thought is we must use oil and coal. Even wind energy is moot due to the lack of affordable electric storage. Can anyone build a safe capacitor that is not hooked up to the Uncooperative Electric companies? They surely can build it but, another Tucker Car story in the making.

[netdoggy]

A solid oxide fuel cell that runs on natural gas has to emit CO2. Natural gas is a derivative of oil we drill from the ground and it is made out of carbon chains. The result of using energy stored in carbon chains is getting CO2... there is no way around it. The only way to go CO2 free is to use energy from the sun (solar/wind) or something else besides Carbon based items. Long run, the Bloombox only helps with efficiency because there is about a 10% loss of energy when it has to travel through an electric grid.

[sjc_1]

You can be more carbon neutral by using methane made by gasifying biomass. There is enough biomass just in corn stalks for run most of the homes in the U.S.

[rwsmith29456]

My questions are... 1) How much natural gas and oxygen are required per unit of electrity?. 2) What by-products are there and how much is given off?

[sjc_1]

1) About 6 therms (100 standard cubic feet) of natural gas per hour...oxygen is irrelevant.

2) It produces CO2 and H20, about the same amount of CO2 as your car.

[j40405]

There is no "free" energy. It was exciting to see the report on 60 minutes. But it is simply another generator. It might improve our landscape by simply putting a box in a substation and using it to power a subdivision. It may also be nice for large office complexes. But you are still at the mercy of your fuel supplier, Be it natural gas, propane, ethanol, diesel etc. Whatever fuel everyone chooses will skyrocket in price. It is simply hard to compete with a coal fired or nuclear power plant.

[kman2279]

is this availible in europe? or is it exclusive to the U.S. ?

[sjc_1]

Bloom will sell where ever there are buyers.

[Ryan_T521]

See this:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100224-bloom-box-launch-bloom-energy-press-conference-update/

Although I wish these people all the best, so far this seems like a case of successul marketing hype. We need to get a solid idea of the maximum expected efficiency and likely future costs (up-front and maintenance) before taking it too seriously. After all, we've seen startups (no doubt interested in venture capital) generate a lot of buzz before, with little substance to follow. I think it can contribute to a false sense of security, when there's still so much work to be done on efficiency and the implementation of renewables.

[anonymous010]

Will we have one in every home someday? Maybe. At $800,000 per box, though, that someday is a long, long way off. Right now, it's yet another great way for the super rich to cut their costs and save even more money while the rest of us continue to have to make do with what we have. Forgive me if I don't jump for joy just yet.

[GreatDepression]

In 1977, Jimmy Carter gave that famous speech to the nation to move away from Oil. Later, Ronald Reagan scrap everything.

Here we are at it again 40 years later. Brazil did the opposite successfully.

[sjc_1]

Brazil continues to do good things for their country in terms of energy. They make sugar from the cane, make fuel from the cane stalks and run their cars on a mixture of alcohols and gasoline. They can make methanol by gasifying the crushed cane stalks for $1 per gallon. Many things that could be done, but are not.