The last few days has seen an incredible amount of buzz building up about the Bloom Box; a fuel cell device that could be powered by solar energy and touted to be the solution to on-site clean electricity generation for home and business.
The Bloom Box official launch isn’t until Thursday morning Australian time according to a countdown timer on Bloom Energy’s web site; but it had its first public viewing via a segment on the USA edition of 60 Minutes.
So what is the Bloom Box and how does it work?
According to the 60 minutes report, the Bloom Box is a cabinet consisting of a stack of thin ceramic disks coated with green and black inks, the components of which are a closely guarded secret. These disks act as fuel cells and each disk is able to provide enough power for a light bulb. The fuel cells are interspersed between metal alloy plates and assembled as bricks. A total of 64 fuel cell disks are contained in each cabinet.
Oxygen is drawn into the Bloom Box and a fuel such as natural gas or even provided by solar energy is also applied. The resulting reaction, which occurs at around 1,000 degrees Celsius, generates electricity; reportedly with far less greenhouse gas emissions.
Large versions of the Bloom Box are already in use and corporate customers include Google and Ebay. These early models cost around $AUD 800,000 to $900,000, but the CEO of Bloom Energy, K.R. Sridhar, has a goal of creating much smaller refrigerator size units suitable for home use with a price tag of just a few thousand dollars. Mr Sridhar wants to see a Bloom Box in every US home within the next decade.
While anticipation is building for the official launch, so is skepticism regarding the company’s ability to reduce the cost and mass produce the units.
Are we on the verge of a new clean energy revolution powered by Bloom Box type fuel cell devices or is this just another cleantech pipe dream? How big a solar power system would be needed to power such a device? If an intermittent fuel source such as solar power is to be used, can or will the Bloom Box store energy? Without energy storage, how will it be any more efficient than existing solar power technology in generating electricity?
Aside from the 60 Minutes segment, Bloom Energy has played its cards very close to its chest, so we’ll all just have to wait until Thursday morning when more details are revealed. Stay tuned.
