Posted on 2/22/2010, 2:32:56 AM by Titus-Maximus
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. Advertisement 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. The majority of that comes from Kleiner Perkins.
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.
It had it's day and then people tried to invent cheaper substitutes for platinum - like gortex or this metal alloy.
I'll wait until I see a set of numbers.
This could be interesting.
But even if 5X more efficient than solar, thats still times 10X less efficient than coal power plants, right?
There would be some advantages to having nuke or coal generate the base power load, and have these Bloom boxes scattered around for peak loads.
If they are using Leslie Stahl and 60 Minuets to introduct the product to the public..then it probably is BS.
IF it works the way they claim.. they better get some really good security because they most likely will get an offer they cannot refuse.
Uhhhmmmmm...OK.
Not if you consider construction cost, land use cost, environmental costs and the savings from a reduction in the need to build a more expansive electric gird. I think the point is to make electric generation local, i.e subdivision or even individual home size. Most areas already have NG line available, NG is plentiful and “cheap” and there is no combustion. I have been advocating this for years and feel this is the future of Solar (home-based) as opposed to large desert covering Solar farms.
When something really works, give me a call. I've seen too much Snake Oil to get excited.
NG is good. It will require some up front investment though.
Everything does, but we have trillions of CF of this stuff right here in the good old US of A if the Bambster doesn’t shut down all the exploration and development of our own resources.
Did Cal EPA visit the plant?
Good Irish boy from Dublin, I'm sure.
Power plants run at 45% or so. There are line losses, which cuts it more. But coal plants aren’t 50 times more efficient than solar panels. If so, that would leave solar at less than 1% efficiency. Commercial solar panels are around 12%, so the Bloom Box would come in at 60%, easily beating coal- or nuclear-produced electricity delivered to a building.
Also, the process produces water and heat, so cold climate folks get a freebie.
If it is true that e-bay saved $100,000 in electric costs in 9 months, they must be noticing some efficiency benefits.
True.
"Sridhar confirms the company has received over $400 million, making it one of the most expensive startups in history. The majority of that comes from Kleiner Perkins."
What sort of loads do think the existing NG infrastructure was sized for when it was designed and installed? Transmission lines and local distribution was sized for space heating, space cooling, residential (cooking, water heating), and industrial processes. It was not sized for wide-spread adoption of distributed power generation. If distributed fuel cells are installed everywhere, it’s going to be a tough problem to supply them all with NG through an undersized pipeline system.
I guess the 50X thing was my impression, maybe old articles.
We would also need a lot more NG pumped.
More is HERE
Hopefully they will sell a unit for use here in AK - the local Army Guard building is using just such an COGEN cell.
EXACTLY! Science is not done by press release. It sure does help investment though....
Classic ruse with a green twist. They still call it a "Pig in a Poke."
They build traditional, expensive, working reactors with platinum, sell these costly working rigs to companies who gush about them (but they can only be serviced by them; secret tech, you know), thus hooking the rich suckers and fleecing the helpless taxpayer. Investment/subsidy money comes in, mansions and limos are purchased, and 3-5 fruitless years of fake research later, Hydroscam folds as outside engineers finally get a chance to *gasp* find the poke was full of platinum cats after all.
"When ye proffer the pigge, open the poke."
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