The Bloom Box is Coming!
Dis anyone see 60-Minutes report on the Bloom Box...a fuel cell powered by natural gas?
jhh
(CBS) For the past year and a half, several large California corporations have been secretly testing the "Bloom Box," a potentially revolutionary fuel-cell system. Confirming this for the first time, several of the companies report this system is a more efficient, clean, and cost effective way to get electricity than off the power grid.
Lesley Stahl and "60 Minutes" cameras get the first look inside the secretive California company, just days before the Bloom Energy official launch, scheduled for next Wednesday (Feb. 24).
Stahl's report will be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
John Donahoe, CEO of E-bay, confirms Bloom Boxes were installed at his corporate campus nine months ago. The company says the boxes already saved them over $100,000 in electricity bills. "It's been very successful thus far. [The Bloom Boxes] have done what they said they would do," says Donahoe. The five boxes are able to produce five times as much electricity as the 3,248 solar panels that E-bay installed on its campus roofs, says the CEO. "The footprint for Bloom is much more efficient," he tells Stahl.
Google, FedEx, Staples and Walmart are among the first 20 clients Bloom is confirming.
Stahl is the first journalist to be allowed into the Bloom Energy lab and factory where currently one box a day is built. The boxes create electricity by a chemical process that utilizes oxygen and fuel, but involves no combustion. Bloom's founder and CEO, K.R. Sridhar, insists all the materials in the box are cheap and available in abundance. Bloom says each large box - which can power about 100 homes - currently sells for $700-800,000. They hope within five to 10 years to roll out a smaller home version for about $3,000 a unit.
Bloom Energy was the first clean energy start-up Kleiner-Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, invested in. They currently invest in about 50 clean tech companies. Sridhar confirms the company has received over $400 million, making it one of the most expensive startups in history.
John Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins partner who invested in Bloom, has high hopes. "The Bloom Box is intended to replace the [electric power] grid for its customer," says Doerr. He thinks existing utility companies should not be threatened or have a problem with Bloom Energy. "The utility companies will see this as a solution.All they need to do is buy Bloom Boxes, put them in the substation for the neighborhood and sell that electricity," he says.
But there is another hurdle says Michael Kanellos, editor-in-chief of the Web site GreenTech Media. Even if Sridhar can mass produce his boxes and sell them cheaply enough, "The problem is then G.E. and Siemens and other conglomerates that can probably do the same thing. They have fuel cell patents," he tells Stahl.
he Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?
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Bloom Energy's K.R. Sridhar, holding up fuel cells that are key components of the so-called "Bloom box." (CBS)
INTERACTIVEEnergy Ed.A look at our sources of energy and how we use them to live and work.
Lesley Stahl and "60 Minutes" cameras get the first look inside the secretive California company, just days before the Bloom Energy official launch, scheduled for next Wednesday (Feb. 24).
Stahl's report will be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
John Donahoe, CEO of E-bay, confirms Bloom Boxes were installed at his corporate campus nine months ago. The company says the boxes already saved them over $100,000 in electricity bills. "It's been very successful thus far. [The Bloom Boxes] have done what they said they would do," says Donahoe. The five boxes are able to produce five times as much electricity as the 3,248 solar panels that E-bay installed on its campus roofs, says the CEO. "The footprint for Bloom is much more efficient," he tells Stahl.
Google, FedEx, Staples and Walmart are among the first 20 clients Bloom is confirming.
Stahl is the first journalist to be allowed into the Bloom Energy lab and factory where currently one box a day is built. The boxes create electricity by a chemical process that utilizes oxygen and fuel, but involves no combustion. Bloom's founder and CEO, K.R. Sridhar, insists all the materials in the box are cheap and available in abundance. Bloom says each large box - which can power about 100 homes - currently sells for $700-800,000. They hope within five to 10 years to roll out a smaller home version for about $3,000 a unit.
Bloom Energy was the first clean energy start-up Kleiner-Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, invested in. They currently invest in about 50 clean tech companies. Sridhar confirms the company has received over $400 million, making it one of the most expensive startups in history.
John Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins partner who invested in Bloom, has high hopes. "The Bloom Box is intended to replace the [electric power] grid for its customer," says Doerr. He thinks existing utility companies should not be threatened or have a problem with Bloom Energy. "The utility companies will see this as a solution.All they need to do is buy Bloom Boxes, put them in the substation for the neighborhood and sell that electricity," he says.
But there is another hurdle says Michael Kanellos, editor-in-chief of the Web site GreenTech Media. Even if Sridhar can mass produce his boxes and sell them cheaply enough, "The problem is then G.E. and Siemens and other conglomerates that can probably do the same thing. They have fuel cell patents," he tells Stahl.
Views: 328
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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Todd - My thought is to never discount what science & scientists might be able to come up with next. DaVinci depicted the concept of a man flying with wings and many, many, MANY years later here we are jetting around the globe. Not 25 years ago we were tied to the walls with our telephone communications, never imagined we'd soon be so highly mobile with that device. Television used to be 3 or 4 major networks, then cable came along, and soon the satellite dish was miniaturized to fit on home rooftops.
As for windfarms, it seems to be a technology in progress. I'd bet if someone were to post the $$$ of leasing land for such there would be a sharp increase in interest. lol My thought is that this will most likely be a regional development, though, as windfarms in Alaska just don't seem too feasible (right now, anyway).
And as for the Bloom Box ... it's a work in progress too, no telling what it might lead to next, gotta start somewhere doing something different so we don't keep getting what we've always gotten. The world's population is increasing, meaning increasing energy demands. Not enough batteries in the world for all of it (and the rechargeable ones need electricity anyway).
Got to keep the options open ... keep looking for ways to diversify.
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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Oh, and somebody around here mentioned leasing land for those high-tech cell phone/wireless towers, too.
Yep, that money puts food on the table, gas in the vehicles, shoes on the feet, clothes on the backs. Also, not excavating surface, no respiratory aggravations that increase medical costs. Boy, I'll bet I could go on and on ... (don't worry, I won't, lol).
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Permalink Reply by Henry on
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Skip,
My understanding is limited to what I saw on the show, but here goes.... The goal of the Bloom Box is to take your house off of the electrical grid. You would still need to be connected to the natural gas grid. (You could use some other fuel, if you desired, but natural gas seemed to be the best choice.) The trick of the Bloom Box is a cheap catalyst -- they don't have to use expensive metals like platinum or palladium. This was their secret. The catalyst allows a controlled reaction between natural gas (fuel) and the oxygen in the air (oxidizer), and out comes electric current. (Of course, there would have to be some type of power conditioning to make it mimic the AC that your house currently runs on.)
The claim is that this is significantly more efficient than burning natural gas with oxygen (in the power plant), capturing the heat, converting that to electricity, and then pushing it out over the electrical grid to your home. Time will tell.
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Permalink Reply by North LA on
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Why? Take it directly to the consumer. Hook up your $3000 generator to the natural gas line and watch your electric bill disappear. Heck, they may even have to pay you.
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Permalink Reply by DJG on
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Agreed, If (again big IF) they can actually get the consumer cost down to that level then they have effectively just taken the coal lobby out of the dialog.
Marketplace factors and consumer desire for cleaner off-grid options would leave the clean coal folks stuck in the bleachers with a hot dog and a program while the consumer ends up moving over to a cleaner and more cost effective method of on-site power generation.
Again, much more needs to be learned/revealed about whether this device actually works, how long it works, whether it can become economically viable on a mass produced level, etc.
If it does what they are touting, however, this technology could be a signifcant new development that changes the globe in dramatic ways - much like the introduction of the first PC's or when Al Gore invented the internet (LOL!).
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on -
Good synopsis, Henry. I will be looking for additional coverage of the Bloom Box especially how it is perceived by the utility companies and the coal and railroad industries. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will seek to discredit the technology.
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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on
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I believe there's a BIG misconception here.
The breadbox sized unit is the actual fuel cell element. The necessary equipment to use the breadbox is more like half-refrigerator size. (From what little I could gather from the TV show.)
I couldn't see enough to figure it all out, but there was a box that looked a bit like an oven that the fuel cell element would sit in. There was other stuff around it that may be some sort of chemical preprocessing equipment. Then there will need to be control equipment, electrical control, DC-AC inverters, etc.
A half-refrigerator size home power source is still a really great thing if it works.
I really hope this IS the power solution we've all been hoping for.
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Permalink Reply by drilltheshale on
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NYT article says they're doing it now at 8-10 cents per KW-hour. Also that a 10-year lifespan is expected BUT fuel cell stacks would have to be swapped twice during that period.
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Permalink Reply by VSC DeSoto South on
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Maybe I want too much too fast.
Sounds great I only have 2 issues.
The 'massive production facility in Mumbai, India' means no increase in jobs.
If it will be used in America, it could revolutionize the source of residential energy.
Where are the jobs eliminated because of less need for 'old' energy infrastructure.
Will jobs be created for the long term to support the 'bloom box'?
Interesting to see the ripples should this take off large scale.
Savings money on energy is great.
We also need to make sure there are jobs created here (vs mumbai) to go along with rolling this out and there after.
I am hoping that ultimately that would be the plan. But the fact that a plant has already been built off shore tells me that it could go either way.
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Permalink Reply by DJG on
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Here's a link to the actual feature from 60 Minutes:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6228923n
If this actually works as presented, and if the actual price can be lowered via mass production to a level that makes it economical to install a home version - then this seems like it could have the potential to be a very revolutionary development.
Very interesting indeed.
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Permalink Reply by DJG on
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Interesting link, explaining how this type of device could be used to set up an off the grid residential natural gas fuel cell.
Wow, if this actually does what is says it does it looks like it could be a really bad time to be in the coal business.....
http://blog.mapawatt.com/2010/02/02/residential-natural-gas-fuel-ce...
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Fascinating, David. What I have not noticed is any projections of whether the Bloom Box actually increases nat gas consumption. Would the amount of nat gas utilized in electrical generation by Bloom Boxes be greater than that which it would displace from electrical utilities utilizing nat gas? Until i hear more, I think I will decline to climb on the band wagon.
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