forums energies: society, ecology and clean technologies

Will the Bloom Box sound the death knell for power plants?
Publication date: March 3, 2010

For a little over a week, following a report broadcast on the CBS News television channel, the rumor has not stopped spreading on the internet, first in the United States, then throughout the world : A Californian company called Bloom Energy has developed a revolutionary "box", the Bloom Box, capable of producing electrical energy almost without polluting and with remarkable efficiency.

Presented as part of this report by the president of Bloom Energy in person, a former NASA engineer, active in particular in the space station project to be installed on Mars, the Bloom Box is in fact a fuel cell which, unlike the models hitherto known, is capable of using almost any fuel as long as it can supply oxygen.

Given its exceptional performance, due to the use of materials that are currently kept secret, a single Bloom Box the size of a shoebox would eventually be able to supply electricity to an ordinary residential house. .



For the moment, this miniature version presented to the press is not marketed but Bloom Energy thinks it can produce it for around 2000 euros within five to ten years.

On the other hand, much more powerful and voluminous versions, but based on the same principle, are already used by companies that consume a lot of energy, such as Google or eBay.

The CEO of the latter company is full of praise for the product which, in one year, would have saved him nearly $ 100 on his electricity bill.



Either way, many scientists remain skeptical about it, especially when it comes to the miniature version. It must be said that Bloom Energy does nothing to dispel the mystery and that, since the announcement made on CBS News, everyone is waiting to have more precise information about it.