The Bloom Box

February 21, 2010 9:45 AM

Large corporations have been testing a new device that can generate power on the spot, without being connected to the electric grid. Will we have one in every home someday? Lesley Stahl reports.

The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?

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by ftrack2312 September 1, 2010 2:09 PM EDT: Secretary Powell was correct with his response (without understanding the relevance of his comment to the exact technical aspects involved) - 'that the Bloom Box is part of the solution'. For example, the box with Natural Gas (or any fossil fuel) as a fuel uses 50% of fuel used by a generator. This makes the box a fossil fuel user and Anti-Green. Better than 100% waste of fossil fuel, but not good enough. The only way for the box to be 100% Green energy friendly is to work off alternate energy sources - Bio, Solar, Wind, Geothermal etc. As of now, it could work on 50% of the output of a Solar Grid, so there would be cost savings there (a smaller grid). Until the cell could become more efficient. Meanwhile, Geothermal energy, which is almost a perfect green technology, operates at 50% efficiency or less, depending on the climate, and is very reasonably priced (even inexpensive) compared to Solar.; Reply to this comment


by tucson_2 April 20, 2010 3:02 AM EDT: According to one of the Bloom videos, they say it's possible to use this fuel cell in a home application where you can feed it power from solar, or wind for that matter, and have the fuel cell create hydrogen which can be stored for later use to feed back into the fuel cell whenever you need the power or even charge your electric car. If it works, sounds like a very efficient system and negates the need for batteries to store the solar/wind power. You can't get much greener and more efficent than that can you? For that matter I don't see why you coudn't do this on a much larger scale connected to a large wind farm or solar array then store the excess hydrogen for use whenever needed. No fancy new batteries needed.; Reply to this comment


by spinneplus April 14, 2010 9:37 AM EDT: Interesting, but also a misleading report. The Bloom Box is not really a power source, as it consumes fuel. The power source is the fuel, not the box. The claim to fame is that it converts the fuel more efficiently into electricity than conventional electricity generation and distribution. Fair enough, what with so much electric power lost in transmission cables before even reaching your home, but not quite as grand as the report makes it sound. In that market, it has to compete e.g. with Sterling- motor based, gas powered combined heat / power units. Give them a fraction of $400,000,000 for their development and you are facing some stiff competition.

Colin Powell's involvement indicates who's really interested in the Bloom Box: If you think of camping out in a foreign country with a rich supply of fossil fuels, but a weak electricity grid, that box would be handy.

Powering remote hospitals in Africa... or facilitating the next invasion? $400,000,000 says the latter.; Reply to this comment


by Xavian87 April 10, 2010 7:48 PM EDT: Interesting:

But I have one issue, if this was to supplement or replace the current conventional energy grids, the issue would now arise from the problem of oxygen being consumed faster than average.

Simple,

conventional typically only requires one input, e.g, fossil fuels, water, sunlight, kinetic, etc.

this method requires two inputs, a fuel plus oxygen.

Therefore, this technology cannot replace the grid, nobody will allow this.; Reply to this comment


by lightsout9999 April 9, 2010 12:19 AM EDT: Good day all! I am founder of Project Lights Out and I have to tell you something: Bloom Box seems to be the perfect solution for the future. But they should not sell it so expensive. The most people in this world can not afford to buy it. But in the situation of energy - crisis we can not continue to act in the way we always think: Making money. It is like a medicine. Imagine you are sick and can not buy the medicine. In this case, the patient is our planet. We all know that we can not continue to contaminate it like we do. If you believe in Global Warming or not, but its a fact that we need to change many things. Contamination at least is real and our old "fashion" power plants will not do it forever. We should not wait until the last drop of oil is wasted or the trees are gone. Its time now to use this kind of new invention (the Bloom Box) and give it to all the people. Even for free. Only if we all could use this "Box" maybe our planet will give us more future. Imagine, this Box could also be used in electric cars! I am sure it could replace the normal batteries. Its smaller and gives more energy! Am I wrong? So, please dont continue to destroy that idea of the Bloom Box and dont charge so much money. Dont make the same errors like we see it everyday: Rich people and poor people. We are the same and we all have rights for living and a healthy life. Now its the time of acting wise and give the world a solution. The solution is there and should be available for all. There is no time to loose. We dont have much left.
Thanks for reading and have a great day.; Reply to this comment


by AlienMartian April 3, 2010 1:20 AM EDT: almost but think outside the bloom box; Reply to this comment


by signseeker1717 April 1, 2010 7:42 PM EDT: Kudos to all the visionaries and entrepreneurs out there who are creating new technologies and solutions to benefit and transform the world.; Reply to this comment


by mhirschey March 28, 2010 10:45 PM EDT: So let me get this straight:

From the piece: Ebay bought 5 boxes = 5 * $700K = $3.5M (on the low end)

Ebay installed them 9 months ago and has 'already' saved $100K on electricity.

So to break even, they only have 9 * 35 = 315 months to go (26 years!) And that is in California where electricity prices are the highest in the nation. And that may not include the cost of gas required to power them.

So very interesting, but a long way to go as well to bring the price down and make it economic.; Reply to this comment


by falconteer March 27, 2010 5:23 PM EDT: There are many different things out there that not very many people know about. There are pros and cons to every situation.

I myself hope that the Bloom Box takes off. I would be out of a job if it didnt. The 'stacks' that he refers to, is what I make at work. I know people can be skeptic and your allowed to be, but you dont know the whole story and what goes into making the box, I myself dont know all of it.

But I do understand why they are so exspensive right now. The plates that we make are still under development and being trial and error tested everyday. We are finding little glitches in production all the time. We try quickly to figure them out and fix them so we can get the product shipped to Bloom.

This project has been so secretive. Weve even had to call the project by a code name at work. We were unclear of what our part was used for, all we knew was that it was a fuel cell. This 60 Minutes report is how we got filled in on the details. The night this aired.... I sat in amazement... It made me really proud of my job and actually made me understand why we have to put so much detail into the part we make.

This is all still in the making, like they said people have been trying to do this for years. Give it a chance. You gave your cell phones a chance, and the computer, the internet, and all of these have changed the world and how you see it. Give Bloom Energy the chance they diserve.

--Falcon1; Reply to this comment


by G0GH March 21, 2010 2:00 PM EDT: EDIT: (Again) "NON - Corrosive Material"... *Ehh, Im going back to bed!*; Reply to this comment