Every so often someone comes along that claims they have found a solution to the energy problems of the world, but rarely do they have real world examples of their technology in place before they start blowing their own horn. Luckily it looks like Bloom Energy decided to hold its tongue until it could point to actual emplacements of its technology that were up and running.
Last night on CBS’ 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl interviewed former NASA employee, K.R. Sridhar about his company, Bloom Energy. The company has been working in secret in Silicon Valley for nearly a decade, but it has been building a technology that is exciting enough that it got a staggering $400 million in venture capital to get going.
The company’s sole product is a device called a Bloom Box. Powered by fuel cells that are made from sand, and coated in specially developed paints, the system uses a mixture of oxygen and fuels such as natural gas, bio gas or solar, and generates energy from the chemical reaction that occurs.
While it sounds like some sort of alchemy, but Bloom Energy has been powering a Google data center for 18-months, and has been supplying 15 percent of the power to the main campus of eBay for nine months. While the boxes cost between $700,000 to $800,000 each, California, where all the boxes are so far, give tax breaks and incentives that cut the cost nearly in half. EBay says that in the nine months of operation it has saved $100,000 in energy costs. Considering the company purchased eight boxes, it is going to take quite a while to recoup their costs, but it is definitely making them a greener company.
Dr. Sridhar says his company goal is to get the cost down to $3000 within ten years, which does seem a bit ambitious, but the hope is to get every home to own one of these, and reduce the strain on the national power grid.
We’ve embedded the full segment below, and it is definitely worth watching. Perhaps the Bloom Box isn’t the ultimate solution, but it is certainly interesting to ponder what this device could lead other companies to try.
