Bloom Box: Clean Energy Hero Or Hype Machine?

What do you get when you heat beach sand, paint it with mystery ink, and pump oxygen and fuel through the disk-shaped result? Energy independence, say the creators of the Bloom Box, fuel cell technology's next great hope.

After keeping mum on his highly anticipated technology for years, Bloom Energy founder K.R. Sridhar spilled the beans in an interview with CBS this week. The goal, Sridhar told 60 Minutes, is to replace massive, dirty, centralized power stations with smaller, cleaner Bloom Boxes stationed on street corners or buried beneath back yards. One mug-sized Bloom Box, he said, could continuously power the average American home (or two European homes).

If the Box sounds too good to be true, that's because it might be. Critics say that Bloom Boxes are too expensive, unpredictable, and don't improve upon already existing fuel cell technology. "They're like the divas of industrial equipment," Greentech Media senior analyst Michael Kanellos told 60 Minutes. "They have to work not just for an hour or a day, but they have to work for thirty years nonstop."

Proponents claim that unlike renewable options like wind and solar, the Bloom Box can run 24/7 without the risk of shutting down. But even if this proves true, the price tag could doom the project. Saying that he thinks Sridhar's invention is over-hyped, Lux Research analyst Jacob Grose told CNNMoney that "What Bloom offers does not seem to be unique – other fuel-cell companies are doing very similar things. The real question is whether Bloom has unlocked the secret of how to make these things cheap, and I’m very skeptical of that."

But even if you can't bring down the price of fuel cell technology, the government might be ready to help foot the bill. A number of high-profile U.S. companies including FedEx, Google and eBay have been testing Bloom Boxes for the past month, reporting energy savings upwards of $100,000. California-based companies have been particularly drawn to fuel cells because they can cut the price in half thanks to the state, which subsidizes twenty percent of the cost, and the federal government, which offers a 30 percent tax break for green technology.

Even if the government is willing to help out, Bloom Energy needs some serious cash to complete the $400 million project. So far, it's not likely to run out of investors. As John Doerr, who has already promised significant contributions, explained to 60 Minutes, "the new energy technologies could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century."

Photo Credit: theimpulsivebuy