Bloom Energy is one of the most impressive new technological innovations I’ve seen in the past decade. CEO KR Sridhar talks of the Bloom Box as a new age fuel cell that is produced using cheap materials that can be found in abundance around the world. To be more specific, the fuel cell membrane is a ceramic derived from standard beech sand. These membranes are then aligned in parallel and a gas fuel is passed over them. This produces an electric current in addition to the by product gas oxygen. One membrane produces 25W of energy and a stack of Bloom Box membranes 6 inches high produces enough energy to power an entire home.
Even more compelling, Bloom Boxes can be manufactured cheaply and they produce clean energy 24/7 without needing to be connected to the energy grid. This is in stark contrast to wind, solar or hydro energy that is unpredictable and generally requires connection to the grid. If their claims are true and Bloom Boxes can produce energy at a lower cost that it’s renewable counterparts, then I believe we have a significant game changing innovation on our hands. The prospect of having a device that can produce reliable, clean, cheap distributed energy is a very exciting proposition.
Additional Media Coverage:
Official Bloom Media Launch Videos
Tech Crunch
Business Week
msnbc
Wired