Installing A Bloom Box
Twenty large, well-known companies, including Google, FedEx and eBay, have quietly bought and are testing Bloom Energy's boxes in California ahead of its public launch later this week.
Each Bloom box one costs about $700-800,000. Installation was surprisingly simple, as "60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl found out.
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
"So how many people does it take to install one of these Bloom boxes?" Stahl asked Nate, one of Bloom Energy's employees.
"Lesley, it takes one guy on a forklift and one technician on the ground to install it," Nate explained. "We have the fork lift driver, it's very simple. He 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."
"The connection will take a couple minutes," he explained.
"When those plugs are put in, you just installed an entire power plant?" Stahl asked.
"Yes, it's exciting," Nate replied.