While most of us were still celebrating the Little Master’s amazing feat, there was a celebration of a different kind going on at Silicon Valley. eBay’s headquarters played host to the unveiling of energy startup Bloom Energy’s – Bloom Box! For the uninitiated – Bloom Box is supposed to be a new type of fuel cell and has been nicknamed -’Power Plant in a box’. At a press conference, attended by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Colin Powell, Larry Page, Brian Kelly, John Donahoe and Bill Simon, Bloom Energy’s founder and CEO – K.R.Sridhar claimed that the Bloom Box will do for energy what cellular technology did for communication. The technology is expected to generate clean and green energy while also allowing consumers to reduce costs and dependence on traditional (and external) sources of power.
The video that aired on 60 minutes on CBS that was responsible for all the hype.
Out of this world
The idea for this invention, quite literally was born out of this world. Or in Mars to be more precise. NASA asked Sridhar to find a way to produce oxygen for the sustainability of life on the red plant. The result was a solar powered reactor that combined with Martian water to generate oxygen for breathing and hydrogen as a source of power. This concept was simply(easier said than done) reversed for the Bloom Box.
What makes it tick?
“The core of our technology is simply sand”, said Sridhar. No kidding! The fuel cell is a solid oxide cell. Zirconium oxide, found in sand, is used to make a ceramic disc that is coated with some special green and black ink. Each of these discs can generate about 20 watts of power. A number of these discs are then arranged to form the Bloom Box which has a 100KW capacity.
For a detailed understanding of how it works, chemical equations et al.. go here (needs flash)
Already being used
The company also revealed that Bloom Servers have already been deployed to the likes of Bank of America, Coca Cola, Cox Enterprises, eBay, Fedex Express, Google, Staples and Wal-Mart. eBay claims that is saved upto $100,000 ever since it started using the Bloom Box.
Faces Skepticism
Most new concepts face there share of skepticism. The Bloom Box is no different. Critics and Debunkers alike have started labelling it ‘not revolutionary’ and claimed that it wasn’t the most economical or efficient fuel cell around. Competitor UTC Power also said that the conference revealed nothing that was not already on their website and also took a jab at the number of years it has been in production.
As the days have passed, the number of articles online – questioning the viability of the Bloom Box have also shot up.
‘Clean’ way forward?
The cost of energy works out to be $9k – $10k per kilowatt, much higher than its green counterparts wind and solar. But Sridhar is optimistic this can be brought down to around $3k per kilowatt when it goes into mass production as the materials used in it are reasonably cheap. His vision is that, say, 10 years from now, every house will be powered by a Bloom Box. Totally changing the face of the energy infrastructure landscape.
On a Utopian note, millions of households around the world may have the opportunity to be self sufficient without any adverse effect on the environment.
Will it Bloom or ka-Boom?..We have a long way to go before we will know for sure!
Its really an informative article, hope in future these technologies are available cheap with more power output.