So it turns out Google and friends like Fedex, Wal-Mart, Staples, the San Francisco Airport, and the CIA amongst others have been using a new fuel cell technology developed by a former NASA rocket scientist. It is called the Bloom-Box and more details about how it works and what it will do for the green revolution is said to be forthcoming this week. Since my last big post on alternative energy I have been getting quite a number of correspondence from all kinds of sources and I have to tell you that if just one of the projects I have been informed of that is currently in development come to fruition we are in for a very interesting future indeed and one that hopefully leaves companies like Eskom’s management with nothing to do but put their fingers in their noses.

The Bloom-Box however is not currently aimed at getting homes off the grid by selling straight to households. They are still aiming at the power companies even though they say they want to later sell smaller units to the home. This is not my idea of what needs to happen. I don’t see why we need large power grids when every home can do its own power generation. The Bloom-Box also requires some sort of fossil fuel to run even if it is very efficient. If it reduces utility costs drastically and reflects a drop in electricity pricing to households I might support it but the business model is strange from my perspective.

The CBS TV show “60 minutes” recently did a feature on it and these are some of the facts they shared:

The Bloom Energy Lab currently builds one box a day. The boxes create electricity by a chemical process that utilizes oxygen and fuel, but involves no combustion. 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.

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.

But there is another hurdle says Michael Kanellos, editor-in-chief of Greentech Media. Even if Sridhar can mass produce his boxes and sell them cheaply enough, “The problem is then G.E. and Siemens and other conglomerates that can probably do the same thing. They have fuel cell patents,” he tells Stahl.

Visit this site for more: http://www.bloomenergy.com/