Bloom Energy made their introduction about a year ago and have been in sort of a Beta mode for some time now as Google, Ebay, and Fedex use them in their server data centers.
They basically produce electricity at extremely cheap prices all from a small box. The Bloom box is the name of these little guys that could be the future for those wanting affordable green energy technology.
We all want to protect the environment through good stewardship and what makes the Bloom box capable of assisting our efforts is the emissions released from a Bloom Box.
So what are these emissions? The pollution released is none other then water. Yes you got it, these boxes emit water and that is it. It is exciting too, that large companies like Google, Ebay, and Fedex are using these things in server data centers, because it means these energy devices are close to being ready for mass production.
In reality they are almost at mass production considering they get about 1 Bloom box produced each day compared to their previous pace of 1 a month.
The company has $400 million in funding at a valuation estimated to be at $1.45 billion.
If I had to pick between the very expensive solar photovoltaic cells and a hydrogen fuel cell company as being the future of green energy I would choose the Bloom Box.
The Bloom Box fuel cells are Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and don’t just use hydrogen but typically will use natural gas in a very efficient way to produce round the clock high efficient, low polluting energy.
Solar is still far out of reach of being an economically viable solution to replace petroleum based energy such as natural gas and oil based fuels like gasoline.
Because Bloom Energy is receiving so much funding and the fact that large popular companies like Google are actively using their technology in their data centers I expect this company to be a game changer in the energy industry in the next few years.
Imagine, hydrogen producing electricity, wow! Hydrogen comes from the air but it does not work well for automobiles because it is very explosive.
The Bloom box can also produce electricity from various other fuels like natural gas and biogases but it does it at a very energy efficient rate.
Large commercial and industrial facilities basically become their own power plant by turning raw commodities into electricity.
Distributed generation is the name given to power generation at the point of consumption which is what the Bloom Box offers large businesses.
Private commercial facilities can end up being the ones responsible for pollution produced through power generation which currently is the boon of the energy generation industry.
Take for instance coal fired power plants and the amount of blame they receive for pollution from public relations outlets, US federal government, CNN, NPR, and other mass media stations.
The Bloom Box solves the energy pollution problem by producing low cost efficient electricity that can then be used in every possible application including electric cars.
Instead of pollution being concentrated in Allegheny PA and Corpus Christi Texas when they fire up their coal power plants the pollution will be spread out at each facility because the electricity is created there.
When natural gas is being used to produce electricity instead of hydrogen there will be more pollution but at a much more controllable, spread out and efficient pace.
Considering that the Bloom Box still offers multiple petroleum based choices when picking a fuel to create electricity it may be that the cost of manufacturing hydrogen for this application may still be out of reach.
Even still the prospect of being able to purchase your own power generation plant for your home in the form of a small box that could be hooked up to a natural gas line blows my mind.
Green energy retrofits are probably already designed in to the Bloom box which means pollution and emissions sent out from each box is minimal.
Each Bloom Energy Server provides 100kW of electricity power.
This is enough energy to meet the baseload needs of 100 average residential houses or a small commercial office building.
The Bloom Box footprint is about the space of a standard parking space so the next time you park your car just think this could be size of a future power plant in your area.