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The Bloom Box: Kind of like Legos for building a power 'server'

By | February 25, 2010, 3:52am PST

Summary: Remember how fun it was to stack Legos when you were a kid? What’s that the same sort of scalablility concept beneath the Bloom Energy “box.” Right now, a single fuel cell can power roughly a lightbulb. Want more electricity, build yourself a cube on up to a parking-space-sized server. See for yourself with this ZDNet [...]

Remember how fun it was to stack Legos when you were a kid? What’s that the same sort of scalablility concept beneath the Bloom Energy “box.”

Right now, a single fuel cell can power roughly a lightbulb. Want more electricity, build yourself a cube on up to a parking-space-sized server. See for yourself with this ZDNet video about the launch.

If you didn’t read my post about Bloom the other day, here’s more background on the company’s concept of distributed energy (as opposed to distributed computing).

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Box, Concept, Fuel Cells, Cloud Computing, Corporate Communications, Network Technology, Servers, Automotive, Emerging Technologies, Marketing, Networking, Hardware, Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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RE: The Bloom Box: Kind of like Legos for building a power 'server'
dosguru 25th Feb 2010
These can also run on Propane. Next time we get
an ice/snow storm I want my electricity to be on.
You nay-sayers need to research all the companies
that are already connected to these units like
Ebay, Google and FED X.
View in thread
0 Votes
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The Bloom Box: Fake energy for idiots
wackoae 25th Feb 2010
I have a nice bridge with a little red bow on sale for anybody stupid enough to buy into this little scam.

And yes .... eBay is one of them.
0 Votes
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and you justify your FUD with what facts?
kckn4fun 25th Feb 2010
Seriously-- why troll if all you're posting is garbage opinion with no justification?
0 Votes
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Read the article.
wackoae 25th Feb 2010
What is the cost to light up that single light bulb???
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Just a little too good to be true
HooNoze 25th Feb 2010
Has anybody actually seen one of these things working and measured it's output? This reminds me of the cold fusion. Another miracle that shows up just in time.
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Always get suspicious when you hear a lot of talk
frgough 25th Feb 2010
about a product. Successful products don't need to be hyped. They
simply start taking over their market. You didn't hear a lot of hype about
lithium polymer batteries. You just saw them showing up like
gangbusters in products. Ditto solid state lasers.

The fact they are hyping this thing up tells me it's nothing more than a
pump and dump for investment capital and government grants.

If it truly were as revolutionary as its salesmen say it is, you'd be seeing
it replacing diesel and gasoline generators everywhere.
0 Votes
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It may just need more time...
jack@... 25th Feb 2010
I saw a video yesterday of several installations of this thing running.
Google and eBay and a few others are running experimental versions of
these things and they claim the efficiency is very good. I guess we'll have
to wait and see, but I wouldn't dismiss this one yet.
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Some benefits
Dorkyman 25th Feb 2010
Yeah, the 60 Minutes segment showed the box installed at several companies, and I believe the host even interviewed eBay's president.

But keep in mind that the segment also mentioned that the federal credit combined with the California credit meant that government (that's you and me, friend) paid HALF the up-front cost of purchase and installation.

Also, keep in mind that corporations as much as people do things that aren't necessarily logical, just for appearances. I'm sure that regardless of the cost savings (which are doubtful at current energy rates) were not a big factor in eBay's decision; rather, they probably figured that just mentioning the devices in their annual report alone was worth millions in goodwill with greenies everywhere.
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Regarding fuel cells in general...
jack@... 25th Feb 2010
Fuel cell efficiency is comparable and potentially better than diesel
engines while reliability is actually much better due to there being fewer
moving parts. The downside to fuel cells is that as load increases,
efficiency drops. However, the power grid itself is only about 50%
efficient so bypassing the grid effectively cuts the overall losses in half.

Technically, this product has only been on the "open" market for about
24 hours so dismissing it as a "pump and dump" is undoubtedly
premature.
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Government did not pay pal.
Bruizer 25th Feb 2010
They offered tax incentives. This is slightly different in that it lowered
the amount of taxes paid by the company but they still had to pay full
price for the installments.

So what this means is the government just did not get its greedy paws on
as much money as they could have without the installments. But the
government did not PAY for the devices.
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So what?
ken.trock@... 25th Feb 2010
The state of NJ paid for almost half of the solar panel installation on my roof. So what? How is this bad? A number of companies that do solar installation are able to function in the state, not to mention the makers of panels. And now a small % of households around here can help contribute to electricity production during peak demand in the summer; thereby reducing the chance of a brownout.

Now I will admit that our state is close to being broke.....
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Its not government's job and it is not good at it
davagain 25th Feb 2010
It is not government's job to pick winners and
losers in the marketplace and it stifles
efficiency. Politicians have no technical
expertise. They have no qualifications to make
these sorts of decisions. When they try to, they
only stifle the innovation that would otherwise
occur.
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It would be cool if true,
HooNoze 25th Feb 2010
but do you have any links to official statements from Google or eBay. Not just somebody saying they're secretly using it or something like that?
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60 minutes ran a spot this weekend.
Bruizer 25th Feb 2010
nt
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Several companies.
Bruizer 25th Feb 2010
There are several large companies ALREADY using them. This
includes companies like Walmart, FedEx, Google, eBay and many
others.

They have several several MW installed (10-20) and operating for
about the past year.

1) Yes, they still produce CO2 but at about 1/2 the rate of typical gas
turbines. In short about 2X more efficient.

2) Bloom has underestimated what the average house uses. Each
block provides 1KW. They say you will need 2 blocks for the average
American house. It should be 3-5 blocks.

3) Typical costs with the current cost of fuel is abou $0.08 per KWHr.
Compare to this to grid costs of $0.10 to $0.18 per KWHr

This is a great technology to replace peak loading gas turbines if they
can get the costs down. The point of this FC that is different is the
materials are not exotic and are based off of more common materials
and processes.
0 Votes
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Fuel cells
HooNoze 25th Feb 2010
I saw the 60 minutes video. It's a natural gas powered fuel cell and they've made some improvements to it. The improvements sound significant but the media hype is way over the top. From the video link in the blog, a block smaller than a toaster is going to run a house for a year.

I'd also like to see something from some of their customers, perhaps in the form of a joint press release. The way it is right now seems far too one-sided.
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Not earth shattering, Bloom Box uses a natural gas input . Yawn.
rsmith187 Updated - 25th Feb 2010
On the 60 Minutes piece they say it needs a fuel input and the test cells are using natural gas as the fuel. They use half the amount of natural gas to generate the equivalent power of conventional methods, but this is hardly revolutionary or going to save the world.

The media hype would have you believe this little stack of wafers is going to power a whole house all by itself, with no external input, or just by breathing air. BS.
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Efficiency
boomchuck1 25th Feb 2010
The news article I saw about this was very clear that they used natural gas to get the reaction going to create electricity. Never gave the impression that it ran on air alone.

A very cool thing about this is that if it can run on other gases then those can be created from ordinary waste. Reminds me a bit of "Back to the Future" when Doc showed up in the Delorean with a Mister Trash unit on the back. Dump in some garbage and create 12.1 gigawatts of electricity!
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RE: The Bloom Box: Kind of like Legos for building a power 'server'
pcockerell 25th Feb 2010
Try here:

http://www.bloomenergy.com/customers/
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At 51.66% efficiency your coming close to what the power company can do.
ses_27 25th Feb 2010
The Best Combined Cycle Units Power Plants Max out at 60%. So you can make your own at 51% this could be big. That calculates to be .026/kwh @ a gas price of $1.30 per therm. That's a savings of .064/kwh. But at a Price of $700k it has a 12 year payback (going full out). So size (100kw way to big for a single home) and price is the only road block.
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Let's wait and see
General Ludd 25th Feb 2010
On the surface looks promising. The big promise would be if it could really allow community/block power rather than the grid. The flow of natural gas (or on site propane tanks) is seldom interrupted by severe storms like overhead hi tension lines.

If vested interests, politics, regulations, or greed don't manipulate things so that cost is prohibitive they might succeed.

I also was intrigued by the lead-in that the technology was originally intended (by NASA) to take in CO2 and produce O2 and other by products. What would happen if an installation were installed near a coal/gas burning plant to absorb the CO2? Just a wild thought.

Finally, i have a copy of an article about "turning turkey guts into hydrocarbon fuels". That was 2003; I've heard nothing since:(.

Regards all.
0 Votes
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RE: The Bloom Box: Kind of like Legos for building a power 'server'
dpf027@... 25th Feb 2010
Even if it isn't going to save the world if they can get the cost down so Joe Homeowner can afford one I'd by it just to avoid power outages form storms and the like.
0 Votes
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RE: The Bloom Box: Kind of like Legos for building a power 'server'
dosguru 25th Feb 2010
These can also run on Propane. Next time we get
an ice/snow storm I want my electricity to be on.
You nay-sayers need to research all the companies
that are already connected to these units like
Ebay, Google and FED X.

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