Bloom Box: Electricity from thin air
Bloom Box
OK so perhaps the title is slightly misleading, but an energy start-up has unveiled a new clean and affordable power generator the size of a parking space that can produce enough electricity to power 100 homes, by simply mixing natural or biogas with air.
The likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Colin Powell and the heads of Google and Walmart attended the launch of Bloom Energy's "Bloom Box", the eagerly anticipated 'energy server' that has created the sort of hype usually reserved for tech giants like Apple.
The newswires and blogospheres have been sizzling with talk of this "miracle" micro power plant, but in case you've missed all the hype Power & Energy Europe are here to give you the lowdown.
So, what's all the fuss about?
This is a potentially game-changing, nay, world-changing device that promises to house ample amounts of power in relatively tiny amounts of space for less than US$3,000 a unit (the one pictured in the thumb nail image is apparently enough to power a house).
A mini power station that runs round the clock producing 100 kilowatts of electricity by converting air and a fuel source such as natural gas or biogas into electricity via an electrochemical process instead of by burning the fuel. Even if it uses fossil fuel to generate power, it is still 67 percent cleaner than a typical coal-fired power plant, according to the company.
The e-Bay HQ, one of Bloom's first customers, was the setting for the Bloom Box's unveiling and company CEO KR Sridhar, a former NASA scientist, was visibly excited about showing his creation to the number of our world's technology leaders present as well as the eyes of the world.
"Compared to the US national grid, this is about twice as efficient," said Sridhar. "So your carbon footprint is about half. If you use a renewable fuel, you're carbon neutral." Sridhar has spent eight years developing the fuel cells and users include some of the world's biggest firms such as Google, Coca-Cola,FedEx, Staples and Wal-Mart.
Google was Bloom's very first customer and use four of its energy servers at Google HQ in Mountain View California.
"This is a product of the future"
The largest of the Bloom Boxes cost around $700,000 but will become far more cost-effective as more of the units are built at commercial scale. Sridhar said that customers with should expect to see a payback time of 3-5 years through electricity.
"In a few years, how we will use it is as a home energy server of the future - it simply has a solar panel and [Bloom Box], it will provide electricity day and night and also charge your automobile, you don't need a grid. This is a product of the future, a decade or so away."
It is still unclear whether the Bloom Box can live up to the hype, but if the likes of Google and the Governator are excited by it then things look promising.
Related Articles:
