Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? Customers Say Energy Machine Works & Saves Money (Important!)
CBS News ^

Posted on 02/22/2010 4:36:25 AM PST by MindBender26

(CBS) In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.

You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines.

It has a lot of smart people believing and buzzing, even though the company has been unusually secretive - until now.

K.R. Sridhar invited "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl for a first look at the innards of the Bloom box that he has been toiling on for nearly a decade.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 60minutes; bloom; bloombox; energy; freeenergy
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-123 next last
This is an incredible story from 60 Minutes last evening. This is not some off-the-wall National Enquirer story. This is a very well researched long-form news piece.

At its core, it is a new, quantum-leap more-efficient fuel cell that is built with inexpensive components.

Mr. Bloom's units have been quietly powering large office buildings of Google and Ebay in California for years. Heavy hitters on the Board.

Could reduce need for POL imports dramatically.

Time to read/watch whole story is worth it.

1 posted on 02/22/2010 4:36:25 AM PST by MindBender26
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MindBender26
with no emissions

The EPA would disagree. "Polutant" CO2 is released. And that vicious "water vapor" as well.

2 posted on 02/22/2010 4:39:57 AM PST by Right Wing Assault (The Obama magic is fading.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Right Wing Assault

It is a fuel cell. Water is the final product.


3 posted on 02/22/2010 4:44:31 AM PST by Diogenesis ("Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Right Wing Assault; MindBender26

I’ve long said, and believed, that if you could find an energy source that was 100% non-polluting (depending on how you define that), and harnessed the energy of a thousand suns in a device the size of a battery, the left would find a way to destroy it or restrict its use. They DON’T WANT us to be free, and energy restrictions are one of the means they use to achieve that.


4 posted on 02/22/2010 4:45:34 AM PST by Hardastarboard (Note to self: Never post in a thread about religion again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26
I saw the report and I'm not buying. First he said that a little 8 inch x 8 inch box could power a whole house but then in the report they showed the massive, at least 400 cubic feet, boxes that one company claimed it saved them 15% on their energy cost.
Why does the supposed self-contained power source need a secondary power source to get it running?
5 posted on 02/22/2010 4:45:46 AM PST by tobyhill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

Is this the same outfit that makes those 200MPG carbureators?


6 posted on 02/22/2010 4:47:21 AM PST by traditional1 ("Don't gotsta worry 'bout no mo'gage, don't gotsta worry 'bout no gas; Obama gonna take care o' me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26
Recipe for cheap energy:

Given the stealthiness, we were surprised when Sridhar showed us - for the very first time - how he makes the "secret sauce" of his fuel cell on the cheap.

He said he bakes sand and cuts it(power cells) into little squares that are turned into a ceramic. Then he coats it with green and black "inks" that he developed. Sridhar told Stahl there is a secret formula. "And you take that and you apply that. You paint that on either side of this white ceramic to get a green layer and a black layer. And…that's it.

secret formula=pixie dust=scam. Sorry, ain't buying it.

7 posted on 02/22/2010 4:48:07 AM PST by MrPiper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill

I recall a similarly researched piece on 60 minutes about cold fusion some years ago...years later found to be a fabrication.


8 posted on 02/22/2010 4:48:54 AM PST by Mouton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

Interesting. Thanks for posting.


9 posted on 02/22/2010 4:49:35 AM PST by Judith Anne (2012 Sarah Palin/Duncan Hunter 2012)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Diogenesis
It is a fuel cell. Water is the final product

Well heck. I do the same thing to beer (sort of).

10 posted on 02/22/2010 4:51:01 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Sarah Palin - For such a time as this...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Mouton
A Flux Capacitor is more believable.
11 posted on 02/22/2010 4:52:28 AM PST by tobyhill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

Bump to read later


12 posted on 02/22/2010 4:52:49 AM PST by georgiabelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26
It's interesting, but it also seems to be contradictory. In the article, the manufacturing process is explained. The components and chemicals needed to build it are obtained through "dirty" methods (according to greenies.)

The systems running on landfill waste gasses would necessarily require more waste put in a landfill to maintain it's fuel supply.

That should go over well.

13 posted on 02/22/2010 4:54:37 AM PST by edpc (Those Lefties just ain't right)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

Anytime I hear some company wants to put a box in every yard throughout the world I get very skeptical. Not saying this box doesn’t work. Just saying whatever makes it work could probably be used in a way that wouldn’t require having millions of boxes all over the place.


14 posted on 02/22/2010 4:56:12 AM PST by NotSoModerate
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

Silly man.......you really believe they want a solution?

>http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58H5TM20090918<

“They” are anti-industrialist, anti-American, population control freaks!


15 posted on 02/22/2010 4:58:11 AM PST by G Larry (DNC is comprised of REGRESSIVES!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MrPiper
secret formula=pixie dust=scam. Sorry, ain't buying it.

Twenty bucks says it turns out to be a scam.


16 posted on 02/22/2010 4:58:23 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (The liberals are asking us to give Obama more time. Is 25 to life enough?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26
The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough?

Nope, but a scam breakthrough most likely

incredible story

Literally.

17 posted on 02/22/2010 4:59:48 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Diogenesis
It is a fuel cell. Water is the final product.

Not all fuel cells are hydrogen/oxygen. One fuel they have been using is natural gas. So CO2 will be produced along with water.

Four units have been powering a Google datacenter for 18 months. They use natural gas, but half as much as would be required for a traditional power plant.

18 posted on 02/22/2010 5:02:20 AM PST by Right Wing Assault (The Obama magic is fading.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

seems like wnehever the ecopnomy tanks, or gas prices rise, all sorts of crackpots crawl out of the woodwork to soak the gullible.


19 posted on 02/22/2010 5:02:48 AM PST by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

ping


20 posted on 02/22/2010 5:03:17 AM PST by BruCru (I think, therefore I am conservative!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-123 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson